What the Real Madrid players had to say after the 2-2 draw to Celta Vigo

Real Madrid was clinical in their first-half comeback after going down a goal, taking the lead in under 5 minutes. In the second half, it seemed that the players kept hitting the snooze button and Celta hit them with a huge wake-up call. Here’s what the players had to say after Madrid’s disappointing draw.

Marcelo

Filling in for the injured Sergio Ramos, Captain Marcelo spoke to the media and analyzed Sunday’s match:

"“It’s not a lack of attitude, we started the game running and fighting hard, but football is like that. We’re doing what we can to get ahead, trying to play good football and score goals, but it doesn’t always come off. We have to keep working to get out of this position that we don’t like being in. It’s difficult because the more matches you draw or lose the pressure increases but you have to work, run, fight and stand up and be counted. To improve you have to play the next game and give your all to win”."

Marcelo on moving forward:

"“Real Madrid are not used to being in the position where we are. If we want to win the Champions League, the Copa del Rey and the league we have to play well in every match. We have to go out on to the pitch motivated, it’s difficult but we will give everything to win”."

Casemiro

The Brazilian midfielder took a crack at analyzing the match and Madrid’ situation after 90-minutes:

"“It was a difficult game played at a really high intensity. The two teams played good football. We’ve dropped two points and now we have to keep working because we know there’s still a long way to go. The league title is further away now and it’s more difficult. We had a very good first half but in the second we couldn’t hit them on the counter-attack. We had a chance to make it 3-2 with Lucas’ chance but it wasn’t to be”."

While Marcelo was more diplomatic in his answers, as a Captain should be, Casemiro had a more bold stance. Here’s a look at how he expressed Madrid’s never say die attitude:

"“At Madrid we never throw the towel in, if there’s one team that can turn this around it’s Real Madrid. We continue to work hard because we can do this and we believe in ourselves. We all need to be performing better. It’s not down to the goalkeeper or any of our strikers, we’re just not performing as a team. We all win and lose together”."

Achraf

While the youngster didn’t have his finest game against Vigo, he spoke the true words of a Madridista and for that, we can be proud:

"“We could have taken the three points here but we’re going to keep fighting until the end. There’s still a long way to go and we’ve got to pick ourselves up. They put us under a lot of pressure, with the backing of their fans, and at the end it was a defensive lapse from us and they’ve gone and scored in the last few minutes to rescue a point. I train with them day in, day out and I see the team as being just the same as last season. Opposing teams now know us better and you can see that in each game we play”."

Social Media

Gareth Bale

The Welshman, who was also the scorer of both of Madrid’s goals took to Twitter concluding Real’s draw:

My Thoughts

Yesterday’s match was a far cry from the Madrid we know, the same Madrid we’ve seen achieve so much. The resilience displayed after going down a goal early and to take the lead back was admirable, but what happened after was utterly disappointing. The sentiment was quite consistent across the board given our 3 takeaways from yesterday.

The players that did respond in the press zone after the conclusion of the match had strong words, but these are words that we’ve heard before. Many of the players were rated poorly, with only a handful playing to their potential.  If now isn’t the time for Madrid to show that they are the Kings of football, then when? Zidane had a lot to say yesterday, let’s just hope that he really can turn things around.

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