Related News
Bale home bow ends in Atletico defeat
Print Edition
Gareth Bale’s long-awaited Real Madrid home debut ended in disappointment as Atletico Madrid beat Los Blancos 1-0 on Saturday to register its first league victory over its city rival for 14 years.
Bale started on the bench and had to watch on as Koke played in Diego Costa to slot Atletico into an 11th-minute lead.
The Welshman was then called upon by Carlo Ancelotti at half-time to turn things in Real’s favor, but he wasn’t able to impact the game greatly as Atletico maintained its 100 percent start to the campaign.
It has 21 points from seven games and is second on goal difference behind Barcelona which also has seven wins from seven — a club record — after clinching a 2-0 victory at Almeria, during which Lionel Messi, who scored the opening goal, suffered a hamstring problem which will sideline him for up to three weeks.
However, Koke insists Atletico is not yet thinking about the title. “We are very happy with the result today but also with the effort of the whole team,” he said.
“We are having a great year and we need to continue like this. The manager gave us a few instructions and we managed to score first then hold out pretty well.”
Real captain Sergio Ramos admitted his side needs to reflect after a first defeat of the season, which leaves it five points off the leaders.
“When things don’t go well, you need to reflect,” he said.
“They have won the derby because we lacked the efficiency we have had in recent years. We lacked rhythm and movement between the lines.”
After a cagey opening 10 minutes, the Madrid derby burst into life when Koke played Costa in behind the home defense and the Brazilian slotted home his eighth goal in seven league games.
That was all that separated the two sides, however.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
