Benitez plays down BBC-MSN rivalry

Rafa Benitez has refused to compare Real Madrid’s ‘BBC’ trident with Barcelona’s ‘MSN’ ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League group finale against Malmo.

Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo all got on the scoresheet in Los Blancos’ 4-1 drubbing of Getafe at the weekend, but the Coach was quick to play down talk of how they fared alongside the Catalans’ trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

“I think the analyses of the Shakhtar and Getafe games are different,” he said at a Press conference.

“Having gone 4-0 up away from home, we made some mistakes, but the case against Getafe is different as we controlled the match and were superior.

“It’s difficult to manage your mentality and remain at 200 percent when you go 4-0 up at the break, but I’ll say it was our best first half of the season, with goals and good football.

“Still, I hope we play well for 90 minutes, it’s the object [of playing football].

“It’s a game we can rotate in, but we also want to ensure some players arrive in the best shape for the match against Villarreal.

“[On the Copa del Rey], we think we’re in the right and we’re optimistic [about the appeal].

“[On Gareth Bale playing at left-back], this team have many players who can play in many positions.

“Bale could be one of them, but it’s not our goal [to play him at left-back].

“[On Denis Cheryshev], usually he doesn’t play much so people shouldn’t think that he’s not playing because of what happened in Cadiz.

“He is working well in training and knows what to do.

“To convince the fans that we’re playing well, we need to play 90 minutes like the first half against Getafe and continue our run of victories against Malmo.

“We want to win and maintain our confidence. It’s not an important game, but winning would be another important reinforcement.

“[On potential signings], I won’t talk about our interest in players or transfers.

“[On Luis Suarez], I don’t think about other teams.

“[Karim Benzema] is a player who has integrated well and is moving well, and that helps those around him to be better.

“[On the ‘BBC’ vs the ‘MSN’], I think it’s unfair to the other players of our attack who have played this season with us to say [the ‘BBC’] are the best.

“Clearly our [trident] is exceptional, but they haven’t played much together this season.

“Hopefully by the end of the season they’ll have had more games like the one against Getafe.”

Tags Malmo Rafa Benitez
La Liga - Club News