Madrid started at a high-tempo but soon started giving up chances with Iago Aspas hitting the post before Daniel Wass put the home side in front on the half hour with a sublime chip over Keylor Navas, after running completely clear on the break.

Zidane's side hit back quickly with Gareth Bale producing two expert close-range finishes in 110 seconds, converting classy assists from Toni Kroos and Isco to appear to put the visitors in control.

Celta pushed for an equaliser after the break, as Aspas' spot kick was saved by Navas, before the home side's pressure paid when Maxi Gomez headed in Wass' cross with eight minutes left for 2-2.

With his team now 16 points behind historic rivals Barcelona, the Los Blancos coach delayed his media duties after the game before telling Movistar Plus that the mood in the dressing room had been heated.

"We were talking among ourselves," Zidane said. "We are all a bit angry with the result, normal. With the first half we played, we must be angry with the second, me first of all.

"But it has happened today, again, and we cannot be happy with the result. The first half was very good, but we did not play the 90 minutes well."

That club president Florentino Perez had joined in the dressing room discussion was nothing unusual, Zidane said later at the postgame news conference.

"The president always coming to the dressing room to support the team," the former galactico said. "Nothing more."

The problem, for Zidane, was that his side had just not showed up after half-time.

"We were lacking a second half," he said. "We made many mistakes, lost the ball many times under their pressure, which is not usually a problem for us. I must look for the problem, as I am responsible for this.

"Lately we are not playing 90 minutes consistently. You get confidence by playing the full game well, three or four games in a row, and we do not have that recently."

Although his team's half-time aggregate for the first 45 minutes of games so far in La Liga is 23-6, compared to 9-10 after the break, Zidane denied his team were not fit enough but were just paying for individual mistakes.

"We are good physically," he said. "We run, you saw that in the first half. In the second, it was not a question of running, but more like the second goal. It was a succession of mistakes.

"Then the opponent gets on top and you have your head a bit more down. Sometimes there are difficulties, and it can be a problem to come out of it. The second half was like that."

Although Madrid have a game in hand, and the season has not yet reached its half-way point, Zidane did not try and talk up their chances of retaining the title.

"We will not talk about La Liga every week," he said. "We dropped points, and if we drop points we cannot reach [Barca]. We must just win games, keep picking up points, nothing else. We must get consistency in our game."