After watching his team surrender two goals in the first 16 minutes, Zinedine Zidane could have been forgiven for getting a little bit nervous.His Real Madrid side had entered the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid with a 3-0 advantage, but quickly saw their lead cut to just one goal following early strikes from Saul Niguez and Antoine Griezmann.The Vicente Calderon was rocking and Diego Simeone could smell the unthinkable.But, in all the hysteria, Zidane managed to stay calm, insisting he expected Atleti to come out firing."We knew we were going to suffer, above all in the first 20 or 25 minutes," the Frenchman said, per ESPN FC."They scored two goals, started the game very well, better than us. They put a lot of pressure on, won a lot of second balls. And we were not as attentive as we should have been for the goal at a corner."But we knew that, by staying patient and calm, we would make chances. After 25 minutes things changed completely, and we found our game. Then in the second half we were much better."
Isco’s goal minutes before half-time quietened the home crowd and settled Real down. They cruised through the second half, securing a 4-2 aggregate victory that ensures their place in next month’s final against Juventus.
Controversy surrounding Griezmann's penalty
Zidane will know that his team can’t make another slow start against the Italians, but the scoreline wouldn’t have looked as bad had Griezmann’s penalty been disallowed.
Replays showed that the France international appeared to kick the ball twice. Griezmann struck the ball with his left foot and it made contact with his right boot before flying past Keylor Navas.
Of course, it’s something that the officials can’t have been expected to spot. And there hasn’t been a whole lot made about it - although that’s probably due to the fact that Real went on to progress anyway.
But the double contact did appear to put Navas off. The Costa Rican attempted a rather unusual swat at the ball, as if he wasn’t expecting its trajectory.
Navas spoke about the penalty at half-time
Navas got a hand to the ball but couldn’t keep it out. That could explain why he was so disappointed that it went in.
Spanish TV show El Chiringuito have released footage that shows Navas confessing to Mateo Kovacic that he knew where Griezmann would hit his penalty and taking responsibility for letting it in.
“I knew it was going to fall in the middle,” Navas told his teammate.
Check it out below.