Zinedine Zidane first day: New Real Madrid head coach takes training and faces press

The 43-year-old was appointed as the club’s head coach on Monday following the dismissal of Rafael Benitez

Zinedine Zidane took his first training session in charge of Real Madrid on Tuesday in front of around 6,000 fans at Ciudad Real Madrid, the club’s training grounds.

The 43-year-old former player was appointed as the club’s head coach on Monday following the dismissal of Rafael Benitez, who had drawn five and lost three of his 25 games in charge.

Zidane, who won a La Liga title and the Champions League during his time at the club as a player, will take to the Santiago Bernabeu dugout as a manager for the first time against Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday.

Ahead of that league clash, the former France international instructed his first session and the club’s first of the calendar year, which Madrid traditionally allow members of the public to watch.

Real Madrid’s new head coach also spoke to the media on Tuesday afternoon and admitted that the pressure was already on him to win the club’s 11^th European Cup.

Check out our gallery of the best images from Zinedine Zidane’s first training session…

The Frenchman will get his first taste of Champions League action when his side face AS Roma in the first round of the competition’s knockout stages.

“To win is absolutely essential in this group,” Zidane said of that game, “and I’m very aware of it. We are in the last 16 and the target is always to win in the Champions League and will continue to be so and we’ll try to make it possible.”

He also dismissed comparisons between himself and Pep Guardiola, who led rivals Barcelona to domestic and continental dominance after playing for the club and learning his trade as coach with its reserve and youth squads.

“Guardiola is Guardiola. I will do all my best. Guardiola is a formidable coach. What he is doing is incredible. But I am not going to compare,” he said.

“I never did it as a player and I am never going to do it as a coach. What matters is the day to day, what I can give the squad. I am going to try to do all I can so that we work well.”