Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte has admitted his great admiration for Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane.

City host Real tonight in the second-leg of their Champions League round 16 tie defending a 2-1 lead.

On Zizou, Laporte told AS: “His work is exceptional. In so few years as a coach, winning so many titles is a crazy thing to do. In France, we see him as a very important person, I cannot say bad things about him, only good things."

On facing Karim Benzema, he added: “He's in good shape, he's scored a lot of goals this season, he's also assisted a lot… we have to be very careful. But like everyone else, most of their players are internationals."