Cristiano Ronaldo rattled as Real Madrid offered Chelsea and Bayern Munich stars

Real reached the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey – where they will face Leganes – in midweek, but started the day 16 points behind rivals Barcelona in the league.

Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly wants Real Madrid to bring Jurgen Klopp to Santiago Bernabeu to replace embattled manager Zinedine Zidane. By contrast Zidane’s side again looked a shambles tactically, in bad need of a shake-up given their lack of confidence and ideas.

Despite all the chances for Real Madrid, Villarreal had a few itself, taking 10 shots four on target.

And the home side were made to pay for such profligacy when Villarreal grabbed the victor on the counter-attack after clearing a poor Real corner.

Sainz added Ronaldo intends to leave Real in the summer, with Los Blancos said to be eyeing up Paris Saint-Germain duo Kylian Mbappe and Neymar as potential replacements for the 32-year-old. He has just four goals in the league this season and has missed chances that in previous seasons he would have buried already with his hands raised in celebration winking at the crowd.

Fornals clipped home his 87th-minute victor just after it looked like Enes Unal had fluffed his team’s chance to snatch the three points after a blistering counter-attack following a Real Madrid corner.

Until recently, there was always an expectation that Madrid would find a late goal to save a poor performance.

Last season’s King’s Cup runners-up Alaves beat third division Fomentera 2-0 to wrap up a 5-1 aggregate win thanks to second-half goals from Ermedin Demirovic and Alfonso Pedraza.

Despite the speculation, Zidane insisted last week that he wouldn’t panic buy. “I can not explain why”, he said. That might be Real Madrid’s best path to playing in Europe’s top competition next year, too. Ronaldo, who is facing an astonishing dip in form, was unable to keep his composure on multiple occasions.

Zidane needs to instil more discipline, show the likes of Ronaldo and Benzema – who have six La Liga goals between them – that they are dispensable.

“But I think deep inside, we are strong and we believe in each other, but anyone who doesn’t should get off the boat”.

Predecessor Rafa Benitez was sacked nearly exactly two years ago after taking 37 points from 18 La Liga games.

Valencia won 2-1 at Deportivo La Coruna to move up to 40 points. In football, there are bad runs and we will change that together as a team.