Zinedine Zidane relief as lucky Real Madrid scrape to fortunate win - in pictures

Substitute Vinicius bags winner after Real struggle against Valladolid

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior, right, celebrates with his teammate Marco Asensio after scoring against Valladolid at Alfredo di Stefano stadium in Madrid. AP

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior, centre, celebrates with his teammates. AP

Defender Marcelo controls the ball. EPA

Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior scores the only goal. AP

Real Madrid's Marco Asensio in action with Real Valladolid's Bruno. Reuters

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane during the match. AFP

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane greets striker Luka Jovic after his substitution. EPA

Real Madrid's Carlos Henrique Casemiro in action against Valladolid's Bruno Gonzalez. EPA

Vinicius Junior scores the goal. AFP

Vinicius Junior celebrates. AFP

Real Madrid defender Marcelo challenges Valladolid's Spanish midfielder Toni Villa. AFP

Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos in action. EPA

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said his side still have to make many improvements after riding their luck to beat Real Valladolid 1-0.

Real had to rely on several top saves from goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and struggled to make things happen in attack until Zidane made a triple change in the second half, bringing on Marco Asensio, Vinicius Jnr and Dani Carvajal.

Vinicius struck the winner soon after coming on, to the relief of Zidane, with the victory moving Real joint top of La Liga alongside Getafe, Villarreal and Valencia on seven points.

"The win tastes good because this was not a simple night for us," Zidane said.

"We knew we would suffer and have a difficult game but at least we've got the points. We weren't brilliant but we've only just started the season, so we need to stay calm and be patient because we know little by little we're going to improve."

The French coach, who cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines at times, was particularly critical of his side's performance before the break and put their rusty form down to a short pre-season in which they were only able to play one friendly game.

"I always get annoyed about something during a match, today it was when we kept losing the ball in our own half which is something we need to be very careful about," he added.

"But I'm choosing to focus on the positives, we've just started, this is not a normal season, we've had no friendly games to try things out and we'll take everything step by step, knowing that we're going to improve."