Zidane looks for perspective after Madrid blow record chance

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane put events in perspective after seeing his side fail to set a new Spanish League record of 17 consecutive wins on Wednesday night.

A win at home to Villarreal would have seen Madrid beat the previous record, which was set by FC Barcelona in the 2010-2011 season, but those hopes came to nothing following a 1-1 draw in which a Sergio Ramos header cancelled out Bruno Soriano's penalty for Villarreal after a handball committed by Ramos.

Madrid were disappointing in the first half, and although they pressured Villarreal after the break, they were unable to break down a resolute and solid visiting defense.

"We could have won the game in the second half, but not with our first half display. We had a lot of chances then, but we are not always going to be able to win in the closing minutes," said Zidane in Thursday's edition of the sports paper Diario AS.

"We need to maintain the attitude we showed after the break. We like to start strongly, but we didn't do that in the first period where we didn't play as a team. We have to change the way that we start and we will try and do that because it is much harder to win when you have to come from behind," added the coach.

"Physically we are in good shape because we made a huge effort in the second half and we can leave with our heads held high," he concluded.

Madrid's next game is a trip to Las Palmas at the weekend. Las Palmas have three wins from five games, but on Wednesday played poorly and were beaten 4-1 by Real Sociedad. Enditem