Zinedine Zidane: "Bale would prefer not to play against Manchester City"

Winning LaLiga helped ease the concerns at Real Madrid for both Zinedine Zidane and the team. However, they'll need to be at their best if they're to overturn a 2-1 first leg defeat against Manchester City on Friday evening.

It's five months since the two sides first faced each other. Zidane is aware of the challenge at hand but his pre-match press conference was dominated by one man who isn't in Manchester: Gareth Bale.

"The only thing I can say is that he (Bale) preferred not to play. Nothing more," responded Zidane when quizzed about leaving out Bale for the must-win match. "The rest is a conversation between the player and the coach which I'm not going to tell."

The questions kept coming but Zidane was adamant it would remain an internal matter and not a public one. "I respect Gareth a lot and all of the players. Dressing room things should stay between the players and the coach."

Zidane was a lot more optimistic on Eden Hazard's chances of starting against City after overcoming the discomfort he felt at the end of the LaLiga season. "He's much better now. He looks good and full of confidence. We're going to need all our players, like him and Marcelo, to be 100%".