Julen Lopetegui praised Real Madrid for ‘knowing how to suffer’ en route to their 1-0 win against Espanyol on Saturday.
“These are complex games because of our opponents and where we come from,” the Coach said after the game.
“We also faced a very well-drilled team, with a good Coach and good players. There was also some tear because we didn’t score the second goal. We knew it would be a dangerous match.
“La Liga has very complex points along the way, This was one of them and the most important thing is that the team knew how to suffer and win.
“That was very important as we weren’t able to kill the game off. It’s possible that teams come here to sit back.
“Espanyol sat deep but also attacked. What hurt us the most was losing control of the ball, although we’ve still picked up three very important points.
“Ramos going forward too much? It’s part of his game and not something that we’ve talked about. Not everything is said in football.
“Courtois has the ability to play the ball short and he does it well. Our opponents pressed us and he did very well.
“The new faces did well. Everyone had a complete game, Nacho included, even if his yellow card affected him a lot.
“We left out Vinicius because Valverde came in instead. We’ll see if he plays for Castilla tomorrow.”
