Cristiano Ronaldo: It’s Either Benitez Or Me

“I am very happy because although there is still a long way to go in the league it is always important to win here and to give our fans this joy”.

Spanish media is already discussing who could be Madrid’s next coach, and the name topping the list is former France player Zinedine Zidane, who is coaching Madrid’s “B” team in the third division.

Real are now six points adrift of Barcelona at the top of the table in Spain, but Benitez will be given time to recover and mount a title challenge.

“Real Madrid have got an easy calendar in the next three games, and it’s a good time to get points, to get the unity of the club which is something Florentino Perez has asked of the fans of Real Madrid”.

“The coach Rafael Benitez has our full support and confidence”. He said the club felt the need to publicly display its support because “of all the doubts” that surfaced after the loss to Barcelona.

Madrid’s next game is Wednesday at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.

Cristiano Ronaldo has been rumoured to have given the club a “it’s me or him” ultimatum following the defeat and if that’s to be true then it looks as though Perez and co could be taking affirmative action.

Suarez and Neymar ensured Barcelona did not miss the Argentine too much during his two months out, scoring 19 Barca La Liga goals in a row between them before Iniesta’s Bernabeu strike.

Ronaldo publicly backed Ancelotii before Perez replaced the Italian with Benitez.

Perez denied he tells coaches what to do and said Benitez had “full powers”. “But we choose Rafa having the confidence that he could sort it out and lead us again, and now he has only been here a little, and you can’t fix all the things in that short amount of time”.

To make matters worse for Benitez, Spanish newspaper Marca reports that numerous Real squad dislike him and his methods.

That allowed the pro-Barca dailies: Diario Sport and “El Mundo Deportivo” to celebrate their side: “Barcelona destroy Real Madrid” headlines, while El Mundo Deportivo said the game was “A Symphony from Barcelona and a chorus of boos for Real Madrid”.