Zinedine Zidane: 'Real Madrid players have their confidence back'

Zinedine Zidane has admitted that Real Madrid are finally starting to perform at the best of their ability after regaining some confidence.

Los Blancos smashed four past Alaves in a 4-0 victory at the Bernabeu on Saturday afternoon, extending their winning streak to a fifth match in all competitions - their best-such run in an inconsistent campaign to date.

Madrid boss Zidane puts the renewed vigour down to last week's 3-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, having seen his side net 12 goals in three games since then.

"After our game against PSG, we have been doing much better," he told reporters. "Maybe we needed a game like that. Last year it was the same, we had some games when we scored in the last minute. At the moment we have the consistency we want in our play, our focus.

"That comes with recovering confidence, which is fundamental for a player. Now what we must do is keep going like this in the next game on Tuesday [at Espanyol]."

Madrid, now four points off second place, follow up Tuesday's meeting against Espanyol with a home match against Getafe a week today.