Marcelino: “In the second half we dominated the biggest part of the game”

Athletic Club head coach Marcelino spoke to the media after his team lost 1 - 2 to Real Madrid at San Mames on Wednesday. Marcelino spoke about his team’s performance, and was proud of his team’s response to going down by two goals early.

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“It’s a shame that after six minutes everything went uphill,” Marcelino said. “They forced us to score three against an opponent who conceded very little. It was difficult for us to recover from the first goal. and then we had a bit of misfortune at 0-2, which came from a rebound. But from then on, the team’s response was fabulous against a Real Madrid who had no chances until the end. We scored with a goal from Sancet with the only way that it seems that Courtois can concede a goal, which was hitting the post and going in,“

Marcelino felt that Athletic were better in the second half, and to explain Real Madrid’s chances at the end, he said that it was down to Athletic naturally pushing up the field.

“We were always in the game,” Marcelino explained. “Although with 1-2 you can always have the thing where they score a third and the game is over. Their chances at the end were because we were already overturned. The team’s game, I insist, was very good.

“I decided to bring on Raúl Garcia to steal the ball high as many times as possible and he could also give us more finishing in the area. I think that in the second half we dominated the biggest part of the game. If we had even tied it, victory would come.”