Zidane happy enough as Real Madrid grind out another win

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said he could ask for nothing more from his side after they recorded a third consecutive La Liga win by beating Levante 2-0 away from home on Sunday despite another unconvincing display.

Real took an early lead through Vinicius Jr. but needed Thibaut Courtois to make a string of saves to hold on to their advantage before Karim Benzema sealed the three points with a goal in added time, taking the champions top of the table.

“We can be very proud of what the boys have done, we’ve only just started and we have three wins and one draw, what more could I ask for?,” Zidane told reporters.

“We had a lot of chances in the second half and they had theirs too, but that’s normal because we wanted to press them high up the pitch and they created two or three big opportunities because of that.

“I’d have liked to have score the second goal before we did, if we’d done that it would have changed the game.”

Real won last season’s title thanks to a relentless run of 10 straight victories in which they rarely hit top gear and they have taken a similar path at the start of this campaign, earning scrappy wins over Real Betis and Real Valladolid before riding their luck against Levante.

But Zidane insisted he could not complain about the way his side performed.

“The match did not leave me with any bad sensations,” he added.

“We know we can improve and concede fewer chances and we’re going to do that but we’re focusing on the positives, which is that we have three more points, a clean sheet and we’re all happy.”