Real Madrid closed out preseason with a 4-0 victory over Austrian side WSG Tirol, a performance that featured a mix of established stars, returning players, and fresh faces making their first-team debuts. After the match, several players spoke to Real Madrid TV to share their thoughts.<\/p>\n
Milit\u00e3o: \u201cIt was a beautiful shot\u201d
The Brazilian defender opened the scoring with a crisp header and was all smiles after the match:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a beautiful shot. I thought it wasn\u2019t going to go in, but in the end it turned out well. The team is doing very well. What the coach is asking of the team is already coming together. As the season goes on, we\u2019ll get better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his journey back from injury, Milit\u00e3o added:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m helping the team by doing what I love. It took me a while, but the time has come. The best thing is to be back, at the manager\u2019s disposal. I\u2019ll always give my all when it\u2019s my turn to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
With La Liga just a week away, he expressed full confidence in the squad\u2019s preparation:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team is going to be in good shape. We\u2019re having a very good and tough preseason. We\u2019re all confident. We know it\u2019s going to be a long season, but we\u2019re all ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alaba: \u201cI feel very strong\u201d
Returning to action in his home country, David Alaba enjoyed the atmosphere in Innsbruck:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy, that\u2019s clear. It\u2019s my country, I think the atmosphere was great. I\u2019m very happy. I\u2019m much better, I\u2019m almost 100%. I feel very strong and 100% ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alaba also reflected on his recent role in midfield:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s different, that\u2019s clear. It\u2019s not my position, but I\u2019ve been familiar with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to the league opener, he struck an optimistic tone:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing well. We have a week before the first game. We\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debut Joy for Thiago and Roberto Mart\u00edn
Two youth players, Thiago (U19 B) and Roberto Mart\u00edn (U19 A), made their senior debuts in the 83rd minute, replacing Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 and Arda G\u00fcler respectively.<\/p>\n
Thiago, who joined the club in 2023, described the moment with pride:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to play in this shirt and to make my debut. It\u2019s the dream every kid has when they\u2019re little, and it\u2019s the dream of playing for the best club in the world. There\u2019s not much more to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that meeting manager Xabi Alonso was another surreal highlight:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe coach told us to enjoy ourselves and do what we know how to do. It\u2019s exciting to talk to Xabi Alonso, who was a top player. We watched him on TV as kids, and having him in front of us now is a real honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his style of play, Thiago said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very intense, I have a lot of drive, a lot of attitude, and I cover a lot of distance all over the field, apart from my technical quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Roberto Mart\u00edn, who joined Madrid\u2019s youth setup in 2020 and celebrated his 19th birthday with his debut, the experience was almost overwhelming:<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have many words to say today. It\u2019s an honor to be here and fulfill the dream we\u2019ve had since we were little. It was crazy when they told me I\u2019d been called up to the first team. There\u2019s no better gift than debuting with the best club in history.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described the feeling of sharing the pitch with the squad\u2019s biggest names:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can I say? I\u2019ve been playing with the best players in the world. I was on the pitch and couldn\u2019t believe what was happening. It was crazy, I\u2019m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his playing style, Roberto summed it up simply:<\/p>\n
\u201cI always try to give my all. I approach each ball as if it were my last. I try to hit a lot of long shots, turn around, and create space.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid closed out preseason with a 4-0 victory over Austrian side WSG Tirol, a performance that featured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[55853,55854,403,99],"class_list":["post-79317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-real-madrid-cf-friendlies","tag-real-madrid-cf-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}