Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso spoke to the media before their game against Kairat Almaty on Tuesday. He was asked about the Atletico match and how many conversations there were after it, to which he said: \u201cI haven\u2019t seen a lack of conversations; I\u2019ve seen that there are some. And they\u2019re essential for building a game plan and a spirit. We\u2019re in the construction phase. I don\u2019t know how long it will last. Sometimes, to take one step forward, you have to take two steps back. We\u2019re going to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a Champions League match. It doesn\u2019t matter who the opponent is or where they are, we want to win. Getting off to a good start is important; we already won at home, and we want to pick up points away from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlay well, press well, defend well, attack well… With our form, with whoever comes out, it will be a competitive match. Kairat is well organized and has good momentum. We\u2019ll have to take it seriously from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen their games, against Celtic, against Sporting… They have a well-formed core, with different attacking options. They know how to combine well, they play direct, they have a clear vision. They have to compete well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso\u2019s reflections on the derby<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the feeling should last 24 hours, whether we win or lose. Then, the analysis. It wasn\u2019t just attitude. It was also rhythm, tactical aspects, and aspects of the game. The other stuff is a bit simplistic. We didn\u2019t compete well. We\u2019ve done the analysis and we\u2019re going to use it. Now, Champions League mode. We have to move on. We\u2019re thinking about what to do tomorrow, about the team that\u2019s going to play. We don\u2019t want to drop points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso on Jude Bellingham starting against Atletico<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery game tells me something. I like to analyze it, see what we had prepared and what came out. With the players we have, we can do several things. We need Jude, Fede, Arda… It didn\u2019t go as we expected the other day, but for what\u2019s coming up, we have a lot of options.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso on the distance covered to face Kairat Almaty<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to adapt. We\u2019ve changed the usual roadmap a bit. The smartest one adapts best. The game is just another one, not an excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso on what was missing from the Atleti game<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are footballing reasons; we weren\u2019t at our best. It wasn\u2019t just attitude. It\u2019s part of the learning process. We\u2019ve been at it for 58 days, right? And there we go. It hurts, it hurt, but we\u2019re back in Champions League mode.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alonso on potential rotations<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to start with eleven players, and they\u2019re eleven Real Madrid players. It\u2019ll be a competitive team to play against a team making its Champions League debut, and they\u2019ll demand a high level from us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso spoke to the media before their game against Kairat Almaty on Tuesday. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,115000,85],"class_list":["post-177762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-real-madrid-cf-champions-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}