Malmo boss Age Hareide believed his team’s 5-0 drubbing at Atletico Madrid
Second-half goals from Koke, Mario Mandzukic, Antoine Griezmann, Diego Godin and Alessio Cerci ultimately made it a comfortable evening for Los Rojiblancos in their Champions League group game.
However, Hareide felt it was a result that was always on the cards given the gulf in class between the two sides.
“That was how the game finished and we realise we are a long way from them,” he told a Press conference afterwards.
“We intended to play in the second half as we did in the first but we lacked the energy to do that.
“Maybe because we’d won the Swedish League we were too relaxed and now we are going to analyse this game.
“We have to do better than this when we play Atletico at home. We knew their strengths and that they play very well between the lines and are together and compact, but we played quite poorly in midfield and defensively we were bad.
“All that remains for us now is to try and improve in the next match, and this result should help us learn.
“We mustn’t look at it negatively and neither should we be blinded by it, despite us having suffered a heavy defeat,” he concluded.
