The Frenchman makes his bow as coach in the continental competition at Roma on Wednesday - and he is already under pressure to win the title for Real Madrid this season
Last-16 of the Champions League and a debut for Zinedine Zidane. Real Madrid, the team with more European Cups than anybody else, have reached the semi-finals in the continental competition for the last five seasons. But they travel to Rome on Wednesday with a rookie coach.
Zidane knows all about the Champions League, of course. A runner-up with Juventus in 1997 and 1998, the former France great played 82 games in the competition, volleyed a wonderful winner for Madrid in Glasgow against Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002 final and also sat on the bench alongside Carlo Ancelotti as Real claimed La Decima in Lisbon the season before last.
He has never coached a game in Europe's premier club competition, however, and arrives in Rome with just six top-flight fixtures behind him ahead of the last-16 first leg - all of those in La Liga. Prior to that, the 43-year-old coached Madrid's youth team, Castilla, for a year and a half. And it's a long way from the 6,000-seater stadium in Spain's Segunda B to a packed Stadio Olimpico in the Champions League.
Madrid's last three coaches all had much more experience in the competition upon taking over at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Rafa Benitez (with Liverpool), Carlo Ancelotti (twice with AC Milan) and Jose Mourinho (with Porto and Inter) all previous winners of the Champions League.
Nevertheless, there will be no less expectation on the shoulders of the Frenchman and he himself said so on the day of his presentation as Madrid coach. "Maybe I arrive here with some of the ground already covered, with the warmth of the fans and also the players, but I will judged by results," he said. "Like every coach here. Real Madrid is a team that is expected to win all the trophies, whoever the coach is."
And this season, the Champions League assumes even greater importance. Eliminated from the Copa del Rey for fielding the ineligible Denis Cheryshev, Madrid will be seven points behind Barcelona in La Liga if the Catalans win their game in hand. Europe, therefore, seems like the most accessible route to a trophy in 2015-16.
Seven games at the highest level stand between Real and a seventh title and although it will be extremely tough, at least they depend on themselves and not on the results of others like in La Liga.
So Zidane's European adventure starts in Rome. His success as a player is unquestioned, yet he still has to prove himself as a coach and this competition will be a good measure of that. Pep Guardiola and Roberto Di Matteo both won the Champions League in their debut campaigns. Zizou will now hope to follow in their footsteps.
- Goal