Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso believes his side deserved to lose, following their 5-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid on Saturday.
Los Blancos headed into the tie with a 100% record this season, having won all their matches in the league and UCL.
However, Alonso suffered his first league defeat of the season, in his side’s biggest test of the campaign so far.
Atletico started the game brightly, dominating the early exchanges of the match and were rewarded after Robin Le Normand headed in the opener in the 14th minute.
Real Madrid got back into the game and equalized through the in-form Kylian Mbappe, before taking the lead with a stunner from Arda Guler.
Despite having Clement Lenglet’s goal ruled out for handball, Atletico pulled level on terms in first half stoppage-time through a superb header from Alexander Sorloth.
After the interval, Julian Alvarez converted a spot kick to put the home side back in front, before netting a brilliant freekick goal in the 63rd minute to increase the lead.
With the away side pushing for an equalizer, Antoine Griezmann ended his goal drought with his side’s fifth, scoring from a brilliant counterattacking move to complete the 5-2 win.
Speaking after the match, Xabi Alonso admitted that his side’s performances showed they deserved to lose.
“It was a bad match. We didn’t start well, we didn’t play well collectively, nor in terms of the quality of our play with and without the ball. We are in a rebuilding phase, today is our first defeat and this will continue,” the Real Madrid boss stated.
“We have to learn from what happened, because it will surely serve us well in the future. But there are no excuses. We’re hurt, as are the fans. It was a derby and it was a deserved defeat. We weren’t… in the game, we lacked a gear… the defeat hurts.
“We’ll analyse the decisions afterwards, but we’ll learn from it. This hurts, it hurts the fans, but it’s a process of building. Today we didn’t perform at the level we should have.”
What next for Real Madrid?
The former European champions suffered their first league defeat of the season, but have little time to grieve as they face Kairat Almaty in the UCL in midweek.
They still top the La Liga standings, but could drop down into second place should Barcelona record a victory over Real Sociedad on Sunday.
Their performance on Saturday was disappointing, but Xabi Alonso will hope to oversee a significant improvement, as they look to challenge the Catalan giants for the league crown this season.
