“A defeat as painful as today’s is never positive”
“It wasn’t us today. We always have to play with a high degree of concentration, be pressing, aggressive, brave when serving the ball… This has to help us learn.”
Ruben Baraja, coach of Valencia, was very critical of his team’s performance at the Santiago Bernabéu, losing 5-1 to Real Madrid, and assured that “you can lose, but not in this way.” and that is what “it hurts.”
“A defeat as painful as today’s is never positive. Today we have chosen the worst scenario to make mistakes. From there, we have to be self-critical. We have conceded a lot, something that is unusual. The worst scenario to give the worst version of this season. Today you can lose, but not in this way, which is what hurts. “We have lacked the things that make us competitive because I didn’t like the things I saw today,” he said at a press conference.
“What happened at the beginning of the second half hurt me a lot. We have lacked being intense, pressing… We have lost virtues that we had in other games. “And with these facilities, Real Madrid takes advantage of them,” he continued.
“It wasn’t us today. We always have to play with a high degree of concentration, be pressing, aggressive, brave when serving the ball… This has to help us learn. Here we can lose, because this match is not our league, but it hurts me how we did it,” he added.
A Baraja that analyzed the meeting of his team
“The analysis does not have to focus on the final result, but on how it was produced. We have not been at our level and we have given Real Madrid a lot of facilities. A team with this strength makes the game very difficult for you. We have not been recognizable at any time today. Maybe from 1-0 to 2-0, we have had two or three actions to get 1-1. After 2-0 we have been trailing the result, he declared.
“The difference has been the punch in the first half. After 1-0 it was difficult for us to understand that we had to play from the outside and not lose so many inside balls. The 2-0 has been a loss. “We had shot three times without a goal, and Real Madrid shot twice, once against the post, and scored two goals,” he added.
In addition, the Valencia coach commented on the status of two players who left the field early. About José Gayà he commented that he is “just a blow to the knee”while Pepelu said that he took away “discomfort” because he had a “yellow card” and with a bulky result.