Zinedine Zidane brought Real Madrid's outcasts in from the cold and they repaid him with a win in his first game back as Isco and Gareth Bale each scored in a 2-0 victory over Celta Vigo on Saturday. Isco had not started a single La Liga game under Santiago Solari but opened the scoring here shortly after the hour, before Bale got the goal his own committed display deserved to put sorry Celta out of sight. Bale was teed up by Marcelo, who was also dropped by Solari but recalled, while Keylor Navas pulled off a superb save in the first half, having been brought back ahead of Thibaut Courtois.

"My team-talk was really simple," Zidane said. "I just told them to have fun, to play, to run together and to be united when we don't have the ball. When we have it, let's have fun, and that's what we did." Even Marco Asensio has been almost anonymous through Madrid's troubles this season and he seemed rejuvenated too, his weaving run leading to the opener from Isco, who was otherwise the quietest of Zidane's recovering group. The victory ends a run of four consecutive home defeats and means Madrid reduce the gap to nine points behind Barcelona, who play away at Real Betis on Sunday. That deficit will surely prove too big to close but Zidane's job is to restore morale in the 11 league games that are left and to find out what, and who, needs changing in the summer.