The Belgian footballer Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid’s goalkeeper, emphasized on Wednesday that both he and his teammates are going to “keep fighting” to access the next phase of the Champions League, despite the Merengues’ 2-0 defeat to Liverpool FC during matchday 5 of the group stage.
“In the end, perhaps a little bit of play,” he responded to Movistar Plus+ after the match when asked what his team lacked at Anfield. “In the second half, we did better; but, of course, in the end, they defined well, and we obviously lack players. But we never use that as an excuse, and we are who we are, and we are going to keep fighting,” stated the Madrid goalkeeper.
“At the moment, Liverpool is one of the most in-form teams in Europe, and we know that playing here is always tough. I think we competed well, we fought well; we defended well, especially in the first half. But offensively, things didn’t go well for us, and we struggled to create danger,” he argued.
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He then highlighted “some good counters,” although without “defining well in the last pass or last dribble.” “In the second half, they quickly went 1-0 up; we had the chance to equalize with the penalty we unfortunately missed, and well, we kept trying. But with the second goal, it became difficult,” added Courtois.
“I think we competed well and that today we lost against a better team, and that’s okay. Obviously, it complicates things for us to stay in the top eight, but we have to try to win against Atalanta, then win the two remaining matches in January to qualify, and then in February see who we face,” he predicted.
On another note, he assessed the injury of Eduardo Camavinga. “It might be a pinch that he felt, so obviously that is two or three weeks at a minimum. But as I said, we are who we are, and we have to keep fighting and competing. And I think the boys in the academy are doing well too; for example, Raúl had a fantastic match like a veteran today. And if we have others, I’m sure the boys from Castilla or the U19s will help us,” concluded the keeper.
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In front of Movistar Plus+ microphones, Dani Ceballos also spoke afterwards. “I think the chance we had, we weren’t able to capitalize on it. I think the opposing team was better than us at times, and the truth is, we didn’t get into the rhythm of the match and struggled a lot to hurt Liverpool,” stated the Spanish midfielder.
“It is true that we were in a mid-low block and felt quite comfortable; it didn’t create danger for us, but it is true that when we regained possession, we were very far from goal. So it was complicated, and in the second half, they scored the goal, and the match became a bit more uphill for us; we had a penalty to get back into the game, we missed it, and I think from there, the match became more complicated,” lamented Ceballos.
“Camavinga was holding the team together. I think in the first half he was the best player on the team; he was having a very good match in the second half, just like in the last few matches. It’s a shame his injury because it also took away a bit of the balance we had in the defense-attack transition,” he added.
Lastly, he gave his opinion on the missed penalty by Kylian Mbappé. “Nobody knows better than us what he is working on. It’s true that things are not going well, and he’s not scoring all the goals he would like to. But we need to be patient with him. It’s difficult to come to a club like Real Madrid, which is coming off winning everything, and settle in the first months. I believe Kylian will bring a lot to this club and this team right away,” concluded Ceballos.
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