Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso admitted his side deserved to lose Saturday’s Madrid derby after slumping to a shocking 5-0 defeat to city rivals Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Meteopolitano.
Atletico struck first through Robin Le Normand’s towering header, but Real Madrid quickly hit back as Kylian Mbappe finished coolly from Arda Guler’s pass before Guler himself put the visitors ahead with a sharp half-volley.
Alexander Sorloth’s header ensured the sides went in level at the break. After the restart Julian Alvarez converted a penalty before curling in a brilliant free-kick. Antoine Griezmann then sealed the victory following a counter attack in stoppage time.
Reacting after the defeat, Alonso, who saw his winning start to life as Real Madrid boss come to an end, acknowledged the fact that his team struggled throughout the game but insisted it was a good learning curve for them.
“It was a bad match. We didn’t start well, we didn’t play well collectively, nor in terms of the quality of our play with and without the ball. We are in a rebuilding phase, today is our first defeat and this will continue,” he said, per AS.
“We have to learn from what happened, because it will surely serve us well in the future. But there are no excuses. We’re hurt, as are the fans. It was a derby and it was a deserved defeat. We weren’t… in the game, we lacked a gear… the defeat hurts.
“We’ll analyse the decisions afterwards, but we’ll learn from it. This hurts, it hurts the fans, but it’s a process of building. Today we didn’t perform at the level we should have.”
Real Madrid remain top of La Liga with 18 points. But could drop to second place if defending champions Barcelona claim all three points against Real Sociedad on Sunday.
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