Xabi Alonso: "We're still building" after Real Madrid derby thrashing | OneFootball

This Saturday, Real Madrid suffered a heavy 5-2 defeat to Atlético de Madrid in a Spanish League derby. Le Normand, Sorloth, Julian Álvarez (2), and Griezmann scored for the hosts at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano. Mbappé and Guler pulled goals back for the Merengues. The visiting team's coach, Xabi Alonso, stated that the team needs to move forward despite the blow.

“It was a bad game. We didn’t start well, we didn’t play well either collectively or in terms of quality of play, with or without the ball. We are in a building phase, today is our first defeat,” Alonso emphasized in a press conference.

“We didn’t compete enough. Not at the level required for these matches, against these opponents,” added the Real Madrid coach, who believes the pain of defeat should be used “positively.”

With this defeat, the Merengue team loses its unbeaten status, although it remains at the top with 18 points, awaiting what might happen with Barcelona, the runner-up with 16 points, who faces Real Sociedad on Sunday.

Atlético, who had a shaky start to the campaign with three draws and a defeat, is closing in on the leaders by moving up to fourth place, now with 12 points.

“We played a great match from the start. We knew where we could hurt them. The players understood that very well,” said Atlético coach colchonero Diego Simeone in a press conference.

“A very special day”

Julián Álvarez, who was coming off a hat-trick in the win over Rayo Vallecano (3-2) midweek, scored two more times to increase his goal tally in the league.

“A very special day. We knew the importance of this match, being a derby and taking points off one of the teams at the top,” Álvarez told Movistar+.

“We controlled the game and scored two goals very quickly. The team never stopped believing. We’ve been creating a lot of chances at the start of this league and today was no different, but we were efficient,” summed up the Argentine.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.