Defender Pepe said his Real Madrid teammates were down following the 2-1 Clasico defeat at the hands of eternal rivals Barcelona.
However, he refused to point the finger at the referee after a game that saw 11 yellow cards brandished, whilst also maintaining that Los Blancos will not give up in the fight for the League title.
“We played a great first half and we thought it was going to be like that in the second,” the Brazilian admitted to reporters.
“We wanted to do things with more emotion and more control, but I’ve no complaints about Mateu Lahoz’s refereeing.
“The second goal killed us and we started doing things in a way we hadn’t planned. When they got that it took the game away from us.
“We knew a win here would have been an important step, but there are still plenty of games left. We’ll fight to the end,” he insisted.