Casillas press conference
Iker Casillas was very honest in today’s press conference. The goalkeeper asked the fans to forgive the team for yesterday’s match and said the squad is excited about the possibility of winning the league title.
"We will make Madridistas happy"
Apology:
I want to apologise to the fans, but I also want them to know we will never give up. We are excited about winning the league for us and for them. This is a strong team and I’m sure we will make Madridistas happy. People will regard this as a typical populist speech, but that’s not so. I’m truly saying what I feel.
Future:
We have to move on. The team seems sad to me. The easy thing to do would be to give up. We are all disappointed, team, Club and fans alike, but we want to get over this by winning the league title. We want to forget about what happened with a victory against Valladolid.
Title hopes:
We will never give up. We are excited about winning La Liga. I’d like the fans to know we are going to fight for it and that we are still the same team that grabbed leadership by turning the score around against Sevilla. It would make me very happy as a Madridista to win La Liga. When you’ve won more league titles than Champions Leagues you miss what you don’t have. It’s like having a girlfriend; you want to be free when you have one, but once you are, you want to have a girlfriend again.
Post-match comments
Jorge Valdano offered his thoughts following the match and explained how the team needs to overcome the situation. Manuel Pellegrini expressed his disappointment following the match and analyzed his team’s performance. Claude Puel was basking in a “great achievement” as Miralem Pjanić’s late goal took Olympique Lyonnais into the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. Casillas, Guti, Granero, Arbeloa and Ramos expressed their thoughts after being knocked out of the Champions League.
Valdano:
We are very sad, but it is time for restraint and to cheer the players up. They are great professionals and we have complete faith in them.
Lyon stuck to its plan and played a tough game. In the second half, Real Madrid mixed fatigue with ambition, which led to the defeat and elimination.
Real Madrid didn’t play with drive, but rather with the natural innate ambition of many talented players who wanted to win the tie. Only a matter of days ago we gave a schooling on what being a team means and we lost that in 48 hours.
This project is barely under way and tonight was a sad night because we had placed a lot of hope in this competition. We need to be as united as ever now, to cheer the players up and to prove who we really are in order to get over this situation and take on the criticism that lies ahead.
Pellegrini:
The first responsibility is mine, but we have to overcome this blow and keep fighting for the Liga title.
It is a very big setback. We played well in the first half but had two chances and failed to convert them. After the break the team were growing anxious until the Lyon goal came. It was a dream for all of us to play the final at the Bernabéu. The players are hurt by a painful elimination, but we have to lift our mood and keep working. That’s all I can do; keep working. It’s a big blow but we must look ahead.
We had a great first half and could have scored a second. That would have opened Lyon’s defence and made things easier. In the second half we tried more individual actions but that was because we were concerned about it only being 1-0, and then we began to feel the effort of the first half. The chances we missed in the first half are really to blame. It’s a very strong setback suffered by Madrid for the sixth consecutive season but we have to keep fighting.
Real Madrid 1-1 Olympique Lyonnais
The dream is over. Real Madrid were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League in the first knockout phase for the sixth year in a row and for the fourth time in a two legged competition by French opposition as Olympique Lyonnais got themselves that crucial away goal and the lead on aggregate through Miralem Pjanić in the seventy fifth minute after Cristiano Ronaldo brought Real level (on aggregate) through a goal in the sixth minute. Real Madrid will not play in the final at the Bernabéu as Lyon won the clash 2-1 on aggregate.
Defining moment: Higuaín hits the post in the 25th minute.
One of the most highly anticipated clashes at the Bernabéu this season kicked off in Real’s favor as Kaká’s shot in the first minute was saved by Hugo Lloris. Real replaced the suspended Xabi Alonso and Marcelo with Granero and the in-form Guti and payed rich dividends immediately. Ronaldo latched on to Guti’s lofted through-ball to beat his marksman and slot the ball through Lloris’ feet with a powerful left footed shot that ended the French number 1′s 626 minute clean sheet.
Real continued to dominate the game despite taking the lead as they were searching for the second goal that would’ve sealed the game and would have piled the pressure on Lyon. Kaká, Higuaín and Ronaldo tested Lloris repeatedly with shots on target – something that kept piling on for the home side throughout the game.
In the twenty fifth minute of the game a threaded ball from Kaká sent Higuaín through on goal. He managed to beat the keeper who was out of his line but could only manage to hit the post with the shot. The situation was similar to the goal he scored against Germany for the Albiceleste recently but this time luck did not favor him. He tested Lloris on yet another occasion but then a pass to Ronaldo would have been the wiser choice.
Lyon rarely attacked in the first half and were playing the waiting game as they were happy to see Real dominate possession. But Real failed to capitalise. And soon the referee blew to end the first half with Real leading 1-0 at the break.
Claude Puel made two changes to the side when they returned for the second half. Makoun and Boumsong made way for Gonalons and the veteran Kallstrom and Lyon started the second half in a different fashion. They dominated the possession and kept the ball with themselves despite not testing Iker Casillas that frequently. They pressured Real inside their own half and all that the home side could was clear the ball whenever they got it. Real wasted the little possession of the ball that they were allowed to have.
Saturday’s hero Van der Vaart came on for Granero in the sixty second minute and the game became a little more balanced. Real got back some possession and continued to test the opposition keeper through frequent set plays but missed the target on more than one occasion.
Cristiano Ronaldo played more as a provider than as a striker as he supplied Kaká and Higuaín with more chances and took a few himself. But nothing changed. And then came the telling blow. Cesar Delgado made a low pass into the box for Lisandro, whose touch was perfect for the incoming Pjanic to march onto, take a touch and smash into the net. Real now needed two goals to go stay alive in the Champions League and had only fifteen minutes to do so.
Raúl came on for Kaká to everyone’s surprise and tried to use his experience to get Real back on track. But it wasn’t to work. And the last fifteen minutes saw Real dominate the ball again but this time no one dared to test Lloris. It was disappointing to say the least.
Lisandro could’ve worsened he situation, if that was possible, as he missed a clean one on one with Iker Casillas, failing to even test the keeper after being put through by the ever menacing Delgado. Momo Diarra came on for Arbeloa and Ederson came for Pjanić but the final score remained the same.
Real Madrid are out of the UEFA Champions League.
Just another Madridista
Its the press and not the fans
The truth is that Manuel Pellegrini has scored with the fans.
If you know your way through the Footblogosphere or do a lot of online reading then you’d have probably read most of what the Spanish press had to say regarding the sucker punch we received last night at the hands of Lyon. For the benefit of the others, being a rational man, I’m forced to share what I know with them.
Marca, from this morning, had this on it. “Adiós Champions, Adiós Pellegrini. Fuera“, which translates as “Goodbye Champions [League], Goodbye Pellegrini. Out.”
El País‘ columnist José Samano spoke like any Liverpool or any-other-club-that-doesn’t-have-the-money-nor-the-players fan, saying:
Orfeo Suárez reached a new height in Real Madrid criticism when he wrote the following on El Mundo:
ABC wasn’t further behind. Julián Avila wrote about the “stratospheric spending” accompanied by the headlines “Sixth galactic failure.” Avila said:
Elsewhere, Carlos Marcote, writing in El Periódico, said Florentino Pérez had failed in his attempt to:
AS were the only ones to have been a little mature in their approach and simply labeled the knockout a “catastrophe” on their front cover. Columnist and fellow Madridista Tomás Roncero wrote:
If the press were after Pellegrini’s heads Guti talked about the lack of a team ethic openly to the press, Pellegrini complained later that the side had been individualistic and Ronaldo went straight off without a word. When Kaká was withdrawn, his press agent and adviser attacked Pellegrini on Twitter as a “coward who hides his own inadequacies by pointing at others“. Kaká’s wife retweeted the remark. Ronaldo has been declared blameless but not Kaká.
Kaká, did not exactly react to Roncero’s claims, but decided to apologize to the fans “on behalf of the players” and assured us that they will come back and get past this dreadful moment in Marca. And with reference to his reaction after being substituted out for Raúl, the Brazilian like we all know him, had only kind words to say.
Everyone went after everything and everyone they could possibly go after. The brunt of the accusations was Manuel Pellegrini though as its the press who are control of what is being published. They want him out more than any other Madridista as they feel that a Rafa Benitez (who is struggling to keep a Liverpool side in the top four of a weaker English Premier League) or a José Mourinho (who just can’t maintain a 100 point lead at the top of the table no matter what happens despite having one of the best squads in Europe) would do a better job.
Manuel Pellegrini failed to do what the likes of Fabio Capello, Bernd Schuster, Juande Ramos failed to do and that is go past the first knock-out round of the Champions League. Pellegrini unarguably has the best squad of the three and still failed but Pellegrini had to start a new project from scratch with a bunch of players playing together for the first time. No matter how astronomical they be they still need time to gel. Benitez, Mourinho, Wenger, Sir Alex, hell even Don Alfredo cannot manage to produce a dream title in their first season as coach with a newly assembled team. Guardiola did it. But he did the magical treble with a squad which just needed a little bit of changing here and there and above all man management. Their mainstays had been playing together for a few seasons and were at the peak of their careers at the same point of time. This doesn’t happen to every team. Unfortunately for us it happened to Barcelona and fortunately for us its what is happening to Spain now.
We fans understand this. We are willing to give Manuel Pellegrini – a man who made us earn two points more than what Barça had earned last season at the same point of time – the time and space he needs to make this team fulfill our dreams of getting La Décima. Doing so in hour home ground in front of the home fans would just have been the icing on the cake. So what if it is on a neutral turf? Would it be any less special? Hell no! Why doesn’t the press understand this?
Both Alcorcon and Lyon are disasters. No doubts about it. But was it because of Pellegrini or the players? The players failed to step up. We did not lose to either of the team strategy wise. We lost a 11-on-11 on-field battle. Do you blame the manager for that?
The press agency, touted to be our President’s unofficial mouthpiece, conducted an online poll today apropos the current situation and raised a question as to whether whom the fans wanted to see as the club’s manager after the tragedy. Former Madridista and current manager of Getafe, Michel came third with 8.8% of the votes while press-favorite Mourinho came second with 14% of the votes. Manuel Pellegrini, with a whopping 65% of the votes, showed what the fans really wanted as far as the post of the boss was concerned. In the other polls that were conducted the fans wanted out Dudek, Metzelder, Drenthe, Gago, Diarra and to everyone’s surprise even Raúl next season while they wanted to see David Silva and Cesc Fàbregas more than the likes of Ribery and Rooney at the Bernabéu.
The press are supposed to be the voice of the people. They are supposed to tell the rest of the World what the people in their region are really saying. But that isn’t the case here is it? The press wants to have fun. They want to see new faces all the time. They need something to argue, talk and speculate all the time. While its fun on one hand, so many fallacies can do a lot of harm to the population. I’m not being political here. I am just saying what I’ve really wanted to say for a long time.
The truth is that Manuel Pellegrini has scored with the fans. The loss last night was damaging. I cannot deny that. Its a fuckin’ fact. It hurts not to be a part of the Champions League’s last few rounds again and again. But it isn’t the same story again. Unlike last time this is not a team that no one had hopes about. This is a side that has been created to achieve great stuff. And I believe it will. I always have believed in Real Madrid and right now my belief has not dropped a bit. Everyone were talking about the miracle comeback or Remontar as they call it yesterday prior to the game, I never did. But now I am willing to talk about it. Coming back from this defeat would be the best thing that we can expect from the club we love. And I am sure we will get what we want this time.
The next league game is on Sunday against a struggling Valladolid side. I thought yesterday was more important an issue to address rather than the upcoming fixture itself. But tomorrow is a different day. And we shall forget Lyon right now and look ahead because the future only looks green for us.
Para Siempre Blanco!
Hala Madrid!!
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March 11, 2010 | Categories: Comments, General, News | Tags: Caroline Celico, Cesc Fàbregas, David Silva, Diogo Kotscho, Florentino Perez, Kaká, Manuel Pellegrini, Olympique Lyonnais, Raúl González Blanco, Tomás Roncero | Leave A Comment »