Espanyol produced a defiant performance at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday, but despite taking a shock lead courtesy of a Thibaut Courtois own goal, Los Pericos ultimately fell to a 4-1 defeat.
Manolo Gonzalez was overall happy with his side’s performance, although he did recognise that too many mistakes were the reason that they could not hang on to any points, as per Diario AS.
“The team has character. He gives his skin and works hard. We do things well but we have made gross mistakes. Everyone in general. For 70 or 75 minutes we played a very complete game.
“When you come to play here, you can’t fail. The mistakes penalise you, they don’t forgive you. You can defend sensationally for a large part of the game but when you make a big mistake, you get penalised.”
Gonzalez also criticised the late penalty that Real Madrid were awarded, in which Carlos Romero was adjudged to have fouled Endrick Felipe. His belief is that the foul was outside of the area, so should have only been a free-kick.
“It was outside the area for sure. I’ve seen it again and when Endrick dives he has both feet outside the box. It doesn’t matter because it was 4-1, but it annoys me. I don’t care. I have not asked for explanations and I do not want to think about it any further. The referee explained that the grab continued into the box.”
For Espanyol, it is a case of moving on quickly. They return to Barcelona on Thursday for their MD7 clash, which is against high-flying Villarreal.
That was one of the most blatant and cynical fouls I have seen in recent years. It wasn’t football – it was Rugby… he was lucky to not get a red card. I would have – if only to set an example of what the limits are in stretching rules. Imagine if a Real Madrid defender did this very thing… against a Barca player in the classico.