Julen Lopetegui Impressed With Real Madrid's Ability to Grind Out Difficult Win at Espanyol

Real Madrid manager Julen Lopetegui claimed to be satisfied with his side after a tough 1-0 at home to Espanyol.

Speaking on his overall feeling after the match, Football Espana report Los Blancos coach as saying: “These are complex games because of our opponents and where we come from.

“We also faced a very well-drilled team, with a good coach and good players. There was also some fear because we didn’t score the second goal. We knew it would be a dangerous match.

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“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."

Commenting on some of the perceived deficiencies in his tactics, Lopetegui responded: “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."

Wrapping up the media conference, Real's boss spoke on his decision to rotate the starting eleven: “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.”