Zidane struggled against Eibar as a player

Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz had played a team full of reserves against Eibar and his risky decision to rest some starters, including Zidane, seemed to have  paid off when Guti put the visitors up just after half-time. Yet Roberto Cuevas equalised for the Basques just before the break and the minnows could even have one the match had a young Iker Casillas not played one of the best matches of his career.

The 1-1 draw in the first leg forced Queiroz to unleash the Galácticos for the second leg. Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and Zidane all started at the Bernabéu, but even they struggled to break Eibar down. It took the, 60 minutes to open the scoring, when Roberto Carlos set up his countryman Ronaldo for a tap in. Luis Figo curled in a beauty of a free-kick ten minutes later and Real were finally on their way to the quarter-finals.

For Zidane, however, it was not as successful a night as it was for his fellow Galácticos. The Frenchman scored a first-half goal, but he timed his run just a fraction wrong and his goal was correctly chalked off for offside. He also hit a couple of tame free-kicks before leaving the evening’s set piece duties to Figo and was just as poor with his crossing, even over-hitting one straight to the corner flag on the opposite flank. To rub salt on the wounds of a tough night, Zidane even received a 26^th minute yellow card for taking a free-kick too early.

Still, Zidane and co progressed to the next round and went all the way to the final of that season’s Copa del Rey, where they lost 3-2 to Real Zaragoza. Yet the ever-competitive Zidane will hope for a far happier match against Eibar when he faces them for the second time on Saturday, this time from the dugout.