Beaten 1-0 by Villarreal and with their title hopes in total disarray on a rain swept Saturday, Zinedine Zidane’s men trudged off the sodden pitch with jeers ringing around the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Zidane’s side dominated the game but succumbed to an 87th minute strike from Pablo Fornals, who chipped over goalkeeper Keylor Navas on the rebound after a lightning quick counterattack, giving Villarreal their first ever win at the Bernabeu in 19 visits in all competitions, SBS News reported.
Real remains fourth in the Liga standings on 32 points and is only one point and one place above Villarreal and trail Atletico Madrid by 10 points after the city rival won 1-0 away to Eibar.
“We don’t deserve this, we played well but the ball just didn’t want to go in for us and I cannot explain why,” Zidane told reporters. “We then couldn’t prevent them counter attacking us and it’s really tough on the players.”
Real’s slim chances of getting back into the title race after the 3-0 defeat by Barcelona before Christmas had faded further with last week’s 2-2 draw away to Celta Vigo and, coupled with the persistent rain, there was little enthusiasm for the game at the Bernabeu, which was three-quarters full.
