Zinedine Zidane bemoans 'poor' Real Madrid defeat against Espanyol

Real Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane has insisted that his side's 1-0 defeat against Espanyol at the Cornella-El Prat was undeserved.

A much-changed Real team struggled to create chances and looked destined to play out a goalless draw with the Catalan side before Gerard Moreno scored a 93rd minute winner to hand the visitors their fifth league defeat of the season.

Zidane admitted that his side did not do enough to win the game but went on to say that a draw would have been a fair result.

The loss means Real remain 14 points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona, who have a game in hand.

"We made a bright start and had some chances to score, but our second-half display was worse than the opening 45 minutes," Zidane told Real's official website.

"We didn't manage to play at all or offer any sort of threat in the second half, although we didn't deserve to lose the game.

"Espaynol created few chances. It's a defeat that hurts and it's a poor result. I feel sorry for the players."

Cristiano Ronaldo was among the players rested by Zidane for the trip to Espanyol, with the Real coach keeping one eye on next week's return leg against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League round of 16.

Zidane defended his decision to use Sergio Ramos as an emergency centre-forward towards the end of the match against Espanyol in an effort to force a winner.

"When there's not long left and it's 0-0 anything can happen," he said. "We always look to go for the win and today we didn't get it.

"They scored a goal in the last minute, but there's no need for us to go over it again. We didn't deserve to win or lose."

Real beat PSG 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu earlier this month and travel to France to play the return leg on 6 March.