The Real Madrid coach spoke at a press conference after his team’s 3-1 victory on the first day of the Champions League.
His feelings : “They are good. We had some difficult moments but that’s normal. I don’t remember an easy match. You always have to suffer, especially at the beginning of the season when you don’t have your best version. Things are more difficult. The match could have ended after the equalizer but we had the strength to score again.”
Stuttgart hurt: “They controlled the ball very well. We lost a lot of duels, 1 vs 1. We had a hard time in the first half. We could have scored more goals too. In the end, everything ended well.”
Courtois said that if Endrick misses the goal, he will kill him. : “Yes, but he has balls. He had the courage to shoot at goal.”
The team sometimes slacks off : “We are still looking for our best version. The analysis is that we didn’t start the match well. They were winning the duels. After 20 minutes, we took control until the 60th minute. We could have killed the match on transitions. It’s not easy… I’ve coached more than 200 times in the Champions League and I can’t remember a match where we didn’t suffer, never.”
We saw you happy after Endrick’s goal : “I was worried before and during the match. I’m not anymore. The best option was to take advantage of the 3 vs 1 but he was convinced. He did very well. It was the most complicated option but he succeeded.”
Mbappe praised Stuttgart but said Madrid was difficult to build on : “You have to choose, build or play vertically. Sometimes you have to be vertical because we have very fast attackers.”
The differences between the Real of the start of 2023-24 and this one: “I don’t remember last year well but we won against Union Berlin in the 95th minute, suffering a lot. That’s nothing new.”
Whether it is braver to get married at 18 or not to pass to Mbappé or Vinicius : “He has shown that he is very brave in recent days (laughs).”
If he has ever seen someone like Courtois : “I can make a list. He’s the best in the world right now but I’ve had some great goalkeepers.”
Rudiger and his goal: “We work a lot on set pieces. His header is beautiful and we also have to make the most of Modric’s cross.”
If the team depends too much on Rudiger and Militao : “I put Carvajal back on the right because Lucas Vazquez already had a yellow card and there were too many duels. Carvajal was well in the middle.”
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