La Liga week 7:
Real Madrid 1-1 Eibar
Real Madrid has slowed down and signed a third straight draw [two in a row in La Liga and one in Champions League], Barcelona has done worse and lost its second game in 7 matches.
Hence, Atletico takes the lead in La Liga with a promising win 2-0 at Valencia after beating the mighty Bayern Munich earlier during the week.
Coaches react on the day. Coach Real, Zidane on a mediocre display:
‘I’ve come away frustrated with how we played in the early minutes. In the first half we didn’t play our game, we let our opponents play. The second half was much better but we’re saying that far too much lately. A match lasts 90 minutes and we’re starting games very badly. They scored against us after five minutes from a cross into the box and we already knew they had that threat to hurt teams.
I”ll take away the second half performance. We look good physically, we can’t blame it on physical condition. We’re finishing matches really well. Now the players are heading off with their national teams and it’s my responsibility to look for solutions because we’ve got to change things. We can’t carry on like this.
I’m not happy, that much is clear. It’s our third mediocre result in the league. It’s a pretty bad result.”
Coach Barcelona, Enrique on a sloppy defense down 3-0 at half-time:
“It was an important day for us as we had the chance to go top and we did not take advantage of it.
We started the game well and in the first 15 minutes I was pleased, but from then on we entered a negative dynamic and began to lose individual duels in which they got the better of us.
The players are not machines, we must pick ourselves up and compete in the next game.”
Coach Atletico, Simeone:
“Our strength is in the group. We have a very competitive squad. Correa was extraordinary; Carrasco, huge; Torres had an enormous speed; Griezmann was complete; Gameiro giving his all in each match; and Gaitán giving us talent.
We dominated the whole game, except the first 10 minutes.”
