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France's Zinedine Zidane
was injured as glamour Spanish club Real Madrid whipped J-league side
Tokyo Verdy 4-0 to wind up their tour to Japan.
Zidane was forced to leave the field with a bloodied left foot in the
60th minute after Verdy's Kentaro Hayashi stamped on him.
"I was trampled on my foot really hard," said Zidane, 32, who is rumored
to be set to finishing his career with the French national team.
"The doctor is now treating him. We must see how it is in a few days,"
said Real coach Jose Antonio Camacho.
It was one of two pre-season friendly matches in Japan for Real Madrid,
who overpowered another J-League club JEF United Ichihara 3-1 on
Thursday. They were to fly back to Europe Monday.
Real goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez Dominguez appeared satisfied with the
clean sheet, saying it showed promising signs ahead of the new season -
Real's defensive frailties cost them the championship last season as
they finished fourth and ended without a single trophy.
"I'm very happy that we didn't let in a goal as we lost goals in our
previous two games. Real can score many goals, but our defense didn't
work very well last season, letting in so many goals," said Sanchez.
"That is what we must adjust for this season."
Camacho agreed, saying he considered sorting out the defense as the
team's most important task.
"Defenders should do what they should do. They were a bit blunt today.
They need to improve further to react to the movement of the ball more
quickly. But they played 90 minutes very well despite jet lag, lack of
sleep and humidity," Camacho said.
The crowd of 49,542 were excited by Real's attacking supremacy, which
started with a skillful goal from Zidane in the eighth minute.
 Brazilian
striker Ronaldo and Portugal's Luis Figo added another two in the 34th
and 77th minutes, before some spectacular passing work between Raul and
Guti led to the last goal, scored by Fernando Morientes in the 80th
minute.
Morientes spent last year on loan with Champions League finalists Monaco
but has been included in Real's pre-season plans. |
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