Post-match comments

Manuel Pellegrini earned his 100th victory in La Liga in his 200th match in the competition. The coach was very happy with his team’s victory against Atletico Madrid. Iker Casillas was one of the best players in the derby. The goalkeeper was very satisfied with the team’s victory. Marcelo starred in the match against Atletico by scoring the team’s second goal. Pepe, Ramos and Arbeloa were all very happy with Real Madrid’s performance in the derby.

Pellegrini:

We scored three goals and had several chances to net more. We controlled the game until Ramos was sent off. Atletico Madrid have very dangerous men and the final minutes were very difficult for us and didn’t reflect our superiority during the rest of the game.

The entire team is adapting to a new dynamic. There’s still much to improve on, but we are earning good results nonetheless. I am satisfied with the job we are doing in that respect. We are making progress and I hope we continue to do so.

The key to our victory was that we went for it from the start, avoiding to speculate about our opponent. We put a lot of pressure on them and we were creative enough to score goals and have many chances.

I am very happy with the work we’re doing. We’ve earned important victories and I expected some ups and downs to happen. We’ve sorted out our drawn matches, our defeat in Seville… We are doing rather well in the Champions League and we hope to make it to the next round. We have to come back from our defeat in Alcorcon.

We must be coherent and strive to create ball movement and keep possession as much as possible. We should play with midfielders down the wings as opposed to using fixed wingers all the time. Real Madrid must strive to do something different and we are on the path to achieving this, but we still have much to improve on.

Casillas:

We made mistakes we can’t afford to make again. We worked hard for the victory and we have to get more chances on goal. We were slightly hurt by the red card and we made mistakes, but that’s no excuse. What’s important is that Madridistas enjoyed the victory. We won at a complicated stadium and we must now focus on playing a good game in the Cup against Alcorcon.

Aguero had a great chance, but I was lucky and managed to clear the ball. We were a great opponent for Atletico Madrid. We know what a derby is like so it was normal for us to be so focused from the start. Our defence was tight and Ramos’ red card hurt us. They took advantage of that. It will help us correct our mistakes in the future.

We suffered at the end of the second half. It was hard, but we deserved to win in the end. We are solid in defence and the red card distracted us. Atletico capitalised on two chances and had several others.

Our last three games have been difficult. We now hope to defeat Alcorcon on Tuesday. Team and fans must unite to help us reach the next round. The great thing about this squad is that every player on it gives 100%. Anyone can make the starting lineup.

We are anxious to play the game on Tuesday and win. We must reach the next round.

Marcelo:

We suffered in the second half. We find it hard to finish off our games because we try to do our best all the time. We scored three goals tonight that gave us the three points. We suffered but we are happy nonetheless. It was a difficult match. We are trying to play well and we did in the first half. Things got complicated for us after Ramos was sent off, but we fought to the end.

We focused on scoring, but we especially concentrated on winning a complicated match.  I try to help the team out wherever the coach tells me to play, but I am really a left back.

I managed to score because I had a bit of an opening and shot with my right foot. I was only thinking about scoring a goal. Iker, as usual, helped us a lot.

Pepe:

Atletico Madrid should be praised for their performance in the second half, but we played a great game and deserved to win. Aguero was in good form and I had to mark him. He is a very strong player. The important thing is that we won; we must now look ahead.

Sergio Ramos:

We controlled the game and we played very well until I saw a red card, which hurt us. Atletico made good use of their one man advantage and used the open spaces well.

Arbeloa:

Again, we managed to play our best minutes this season in the first half. We gradually play better together. I think Ramos’ red card was very rigurous.