Ramos: Pepe Lost His Cool But He Did Not Attack Casquero

Real Madrid pulled off yet another miraculous comeback to edge Getafe 3-2 after coming from behind twice and scoring the winning goal two minutes into injury time through Gonzalo Higuain.

But the pulsating encounter has been utterly overshadowed by Pepe’s brain explosion when the centerback kicked Javier Casquero not once but twice after he had pushed the Geta midfielder to the ground to give away a penalty.

While the Portuguese has immediately apologized, his coach, Juande Ramos has attempted to rationalize his player’s actions.

“Pepe lost his cool, but he did not mean to attack Casquero,” he said during the post-match press conference.

“He was more upset with himself and he only wanted to kick at the air in anger, but at no moment did he intend to hurt his opponent.

“I am sure that he is very sorry and in these situations, we should forgive him for losing his temper because a lot was at stake,” he added.

With that out of the way, Juande turned his attention to the game itself as he continued to hammer home his team’s title ambitions.

“We have been able to complete another epic fightback because the team always had faith,” he praised.

“It’s not the first time in the history of Real Madrid that the team have accomplished a comeback like this. We are going to keep fighting to get to the top of the table as long as it is still mathematically possible. We are not giving up.”

The coach then went on to justify his substitutions, including the withdrawal of Fabio Cannavaro and a very brief Arjen Robben cameo.

“The first half was very lackluster as we were missing something. The team needed to bring the ball forward more from the back, which was why we moved Gago further up in the center [and replace Cannavaro with Javi Garcia].

“As for Robben, I do not regret playing him even though I knew that the number of consecutive games is hurting the player.”

Finally, Juande chastised Casquero, the victim of Pepe’s tirade, when the midfielder picked himself up and attempted a cheeky penalty which went horribly wrong.

“The way he took the penalty shows a lack of respect to the opponent,” he concluded.   

KS Leong, Goal.com