Tue, Oct 31, 2017 page16

• Real need to show fighting spirit: Isco

  ‘LACK OF CONCENTRATION’: Madrid’s 2-1 loss at Girona left them eight points behind Barcelona, but Zinedine Zidane said he was not concerned about his side’s performance

  • Reuters, GIRONA, Spain
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  Real Madrid midfielder Isco on Sunday said he and his teammates need to show what they are made of after the champions crumbled to a 2-1 La Liga defeat by Girona, slipping eight points behind Barcelona in the title race.

  Isco put Madrid in front in the first half against the run of play in Girona, who are in the top flight for the first time in their 87-year history.

  However, the champions blew their lead after the break, conceding two sloppy goals in the space of four minutes from Christhian Stuani and Portu, falling to their second defeat of the campaign.

  

  Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo gestures during his side’s La Liga match against Girona at the Estadi Montilivi in Girona, Spain, on Sunday.

  Photo: Reuters

  “When things are going well and we are winning, it’s very easy to say we have great team spirit and all that, but now is when we really need to show that we are a true team and that we are capable of turning this around,” Isco told reporters. “We have a very big responsibility from now until the end of the season. It’s clear we cannot continue like this, we are Madrid and we can’t keep dropping points all the time, but don’t count us out yet, because we’ve proved many times that Madrid always fight back and now we have another chance to do that.”

  Real are third on 20 points, four behind second-placed Valencia and eight behind Barcelona, who have won nine and drawn one of their 10 league games, matching their best-ever start to a season.

  Zinedine Zidane’s side now turn their attention to a trip to Wembley Stadium in London tomorrow to face Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Champions League, where a win would all but seal their place in the round-of-16 of the competition they won in 2015-2016 and last season.

  “It was a very strange game from our point of view, because we were 1-0 up and then we disconnected at the start of the second half, and they turned the game on its head,” Isco said. “We are dropping points where we would not have expected to, but now we have a very important game on Wednesday.”

  Real midfielder Casemiro gave an even more scathing analysis of the defeat and refused to point the blame at the referee after television replays appeared to show that match-winner Portu was offside when he back-heeled in Pablo Maffeo’s cross.

  “I’m worried about everything, we are very far from our rivals and our objective, but we have to keep our heads because this is a complicated, delicate moment for us,” the Brazilian said. “Now’s not the time for excuses, they scored twice, we didn’t create as many chances as we normally do and we have to congratulate Girona because they played very well.”

  However, Zidane said he was not concerned by the team’s performance.

  “It’s just a lack of concentration in two plays, nothing else. They’re details, this is football and football is all about details,” the French coach said. “We can’t be happy after a loss, but today is a bad day, we’ll go home, rest up and recharge our batteries. I have a great group who will be ready for Wednesday’s game.”
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Fertility rate falls to lowest globally

  • 2

    Minister warns Taiwanese about Chinese passports

  • 3

    ’Up to Xi’ on Taiwan, but would be ’very unhappy’ with a change in ’status quo’: Trump

  • 4

    China widens attack on Japan’s ‘nuclear threat’

  • 5

    Marine Corps unit receives M4A1 rifles, source says