“We deserved to win” – Andre Almeida proud despite Real Madrid defeat | OneFootball

Despite putting up a very strong fight against Real Madrid in Wednesday’s Spanish Supercopa semi-final, Valencia were defeated on penalties in Riyadh.

Samuel Lino’s excellent volley 22 seconds into the second half cancelled out Karim Benzema’s 39th minute penalty, before Valencia held out for the remainder of the 120 minutes to force penalties. Eray Comert and club captain Jose Gaya both missed as Los Che were agonisingly knocked out, with Real Madrid scoring all four of their spot kicks.

Andre Almeida had a superb match for Valencia in the centre of the park. He completed 91 of his 107 attempted passes (85% completion rate), whilst also managing 13 recoveries in his 115 minutes on the pitch. Speaking of the match, as per Diario AS, the Portuguese expressed his pride for the team’s efforts.

“I’m very proud of the team. We were very good, almost perfect. Our unity was very important and we showed our quality.

“This match gives us a lot of confidence and we are proud of our work. We’re going to keep it up and I think we’re going to win a lot of games. This has to serve us well.”

Almeida also had words of praise of his head coach, Gennaro Gattuso.

“He always talked to us about the word pride. It’s a shame because we deserved to win, but football is like that.”