Zidane: "Asensio? Drawing up the team makes my head throb"

Zinedine Zidane praised his team and goalscorers Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio after this evening's 0-3 win at Real Sociedad.

Difficult ground: “We know that, but we put in a good game right from the start although we did suffer a little. It's important to start the league like this”.

What pleased you most? “The players working as a team. They all play a big effort. We attacked and defended together. That's how you can achieve things - by fighting for every ball”.

Security at the back: “We had to get off to a good start, as we usually tend to struggle”.

Marco Asensio: “I had to take a decision on him and in the end he started, and he did well. Like Isco and James. Drawing up the team makes my head throb. We have taken three very important points from a very complicated ground. Asensio had a great game, but so did Mateo (Kovacic) and the others. What matters is the collective side of things and we created a lot of chances".

Asensio - too much praise could be a bad thing... "He's working hard. He's got quality, and talent. He's good on the ball and he can split open rival defences. His goal tonight was fantastic. I'm happy with all of the players"

The squad: "I'm trying to make sure that all of them feel important. I've got a lot of quality players and all of them are doing exceptionally well - not just in attack but defensively as well; we are not letting our rivals create many chances and we kept a clean sheet".

Bale: "I'm ahppy for him, because physically he was lagging behind the rest a bit although you couldn't tell tonight. He got off to the best possible start, scoring an early goal. Anoeta is a difficult ground if you don't start creating chances, because you are never going to get many. He said that this was going to be an important year for him and so far, he's proving himself right".