Despite the fact that he was the best merengue footballer in the scandalous win (0-4) that Real Madrid conceded once morest FC Barcelona in El Clásico de España, Thibaut Courtois showed his face and shared some very harsh conclusions regarding what his team on the pitch at the Santiago Bernabéu.
First, in the talk he gave to MovistarFútbolaccepted that they were not up to the madridista shield at any time during the match: “Yes, I think that today we have given an unacceptable image for this club. Obviously there are casualties, but you didn’t notice who played on Thursday, and they played on Thursday… we wanted to start with intensity and they were superior”.
What did Real Madrid lack? “We haven’t been compact, we haven’t had a good ball exit and we’ve lost a lot of balls. We were able to keep a clean sheet for a while, but on the first goal we weren’t too attentive and then on the second goal it was a set piece. We go to the break and, when you think that maybe we can come back from the game, following 10 seconds Ferran is alone with me, he misses… and then he scores another goal. Later, in a long ball foul, another goal. The referee had stood up and whistled (in FC Barcelona’s fourth goal), but they are not excuses“.
On whether the plan to use Modric more advanced in the absence of Benzema failed, Thibaut added: “We have to talk regarding tactics internally. We have all seen that neither the beginning of the game nor the second half came out, so we had to change once more. It is something that has to be discussed internally.”
And in the end, he released the strongest and most honest statement. Courtois acknowledged that Real Madrid’s performance was so low that they might have taken a much bigger win: “In the second half we can’t start like this. This shield deserves that we always fight strong and hard. A game can go wrong, that can happen, but you have to fight. I think we stopped fighting in the second half because they had many more chances… the result might have been much worse”.
FC Barcelona surpassed Real Madrid in pressure, intensity, clarity and punch. The culés managed four annotations, but, as Courtois points out, they might easily sign another three or four goals. Ancelotti’s men completely disconnected. Since they were down on the scoreboard, they had no arguments to react to the pace that Xavi’s team imposed on the Santiago Bernabéu pitch.
Undefeated data. Before this 0-4 at the Santiago Bernabéu, Real Madrid had 5 consecutive classics beating FC Barcelona. What a way to lose the streak.
Did you know..? Thibaut Courtois has been league champion, two-time champion of the Spanish Super Cup and champion of the Club World Cup with Real Madrid. He came to stay for many years in the merengue institution.