La Liga fixture 8:
Atletico Madrid 7-1 Granada
Real Betis 1-6 Real Madrid
Leganes 2-3 FC Sevilla
Atletico and Real Madrid lead the table and remain the only two teams unbeaten in La Liga so far with 5 wins and 3 draws respectively.
Coach Diego Simeone (Atletico) reacts after the rout at home 7-1:
“I’m very happy to have won the match. It was a difficult game, but we have done things well. “We are starting and we are growing as a team. We are very happy for it. We try to transmit passion and ambition.”
Coach Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid) is satisfied with the result and efficiency of his team winning 6-1:
“I’m really pleased after the three draws in the league. We needed a match like this and we showed the intensity we needed to win from the start. It’s a difficult ground, we started strongly and it’s very tough for our opponents if we play like that.
I’ve got good players, they’re intelligent. They knew we had to start strongly and they did that superbly. Playing like that from the first minute makes it difficult for the opponent. We worked towards trying to do that and now we have to be consistent and continue in the same way. It’s a reference point. It’s not easy to play like that away from home.
The players know that it’ll be tough for anyone to beat us if we play at that pace from the off. We have to keep working in the same vein and it would be ideal not to record four draws again”.
Coach Luis Enrique – FC Barcelona is happy about the result that saw the return of Leo Messi. The Argentine scored the last goal for the club for an easy 4-0 victory.
“We knew what the game required. And the players came out and did what they needed to do. They didn’t create any scoring chances and we did. That’s what we wanted to do and we did it.
We wanted to get out with three players and use that to open up the field out on the wings. Having players come off the bench and perform at a high level is one of the keys to the season. We wanted to avoid making the same mistakes we’ve made in previous seasons [against Deportivo], and we put the game away early in the second half with our fourth goal.
We got Messi back and everyone saw it took him very little time to get back to his best level.”
