Jorge Valdano: Not Many Teams Will Adopt Real Madrid’s Brave Approach At Barcelona

Despite putting up a brave and long fight in Sunday’s El Clasico blockbuster, Real Madrid had to eventually accept a painful 1-0 defeat to bitter foes, Barcelona, at Camp Nou.

But Los Blancos have won some positive reviews for their performance and one particular person who was delighted with the way coach, Manuel Pellegrini, and his players took the game to the Blaugrana was Jorge Valdano.

“We played very well in Barcelona. The coach used a daring and brave system. Very few teams will try to play like we did at Camp Nou and I don’t believe anyone has been this daring at this stadium in the past couple of years,” the club’s official website quoted the director-general as saying in an interview with TVE.

“Pellegrini did what is asked of a Real Madrid coach and he showcased ambition, valour and a sense of risk,” he added.

Valdano then had to defend the Chilean trainer’s much-criticised decision to bring on Raul when Madrid were a goal down but a man up.

“We needed a goal and Raul is a great goalscorer. It was also a good way to relay to the team that they needed to continue putting pressure on Barcelona and be ambitious,” he explained.

“Our greatest problem is anxiety. Some people say the team looked somewhat tired in the second half, but I disagree. Our problem was that we tried to score a goal prematurely and we forgot that football has certain principles we have to respect.”

Finally, when asked how the outcome would have been different had Cristiano Ronaldo scored an early first goal for Madrid, Valdano theorised, “I believe the match would’ve become much more difficult for Barcelona, but the game was what it was and we must now work to strengthen the confidence of our squad.

“We played at one of the most complicated grounds in football, but we lived up to our opponents and I believe we didn’t deserve to lose.”     

KS Leong, Goal.com