Zidane annoyed by suggestions that referees favour Madrid

Zinedine Zidane admitted that Ronald Koeman's complaints about refereeing decisions in Real Madrid's favour annoyed him, and added that he would never engage in such a debate. Barcelona coach Koeman said on Monday he could not understand the failure to award a penalty to Eibar late in their 3-1 defeat to Madrid. 

Eibar trailed by just a single goal at the time when the ball appeared to strike Sergio Ramos on the arm inside the penalty area. No spot-kick was given and the on-field decision was not reviewed, a call Koeman claimed "nine out of 10 people would disagree with". 

These comments were relayed to Zidane on Tuesday, to which he replied: "It annoys me because I never get involved with the referees. They are part of the game and make good calls or bad ones - like the players, like everyone in life. They are only trying to do their job - a very difficult job.  What Koeman said I'm not going to get into that. We have an important game tomorrow [against Granada], a very demanding game, and that's the only thing we're thinking about."

Madrid are usually not helped by the ref - Zidane

In fact, Zidane believes decisions go against Madrid more often than not. The reigning champions have won just two penalties in LaLiga this season, half as many as Barcelona (four) and well short of Real Sociedad's league-leading tally of seven. At the other end of the pitch, Madrid have conceded five spot-kicks, trailing only Betis (seven) and Valladolid (six) in this regard. 

"It's true that in every game we are unlucky with penalties, but I'm not too focused on that really," Zidane added.  "The only thing we're interested in is tomorrow's game. That's what interests us. It's very important to us. We have to be focused. The most important thing for us is just to keep doing what we're doing now. We're in very good form and [will] try to win all three points tomorrow." 

Zidane happy about Casillas' return

Zidane was also asked about the news of Iker Casillas returning to the club as assistant to the general director at the Real Madrid Foundation. The coach said: "We know the person Iker is, we know what he has done, we know what he means for being a Madridista. I think it's good news for everyone.  It's his club, the club that's in his heart, and he's going to work and going to continue to do what he knows. I'm very happy for him and for the club. I think it's very good news indeed."