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"The team performed well"

Quique Sánchez Flores praised the work of his players, despite the defeat at the Bernabeu. The coach assured that he knew perfectly well that "it was a very special match for Madrid. We knew that Madrid would look for interior passes as in the first goal and with amplitude on the outside. It is a team that has many resources. We have opted for a match in which we gradually generated our opportunities. We bet on guys who know how to play football. We did not have the ball but we know how to play. The only problem we had in the first half is that we delayed our position many metres. Then, advancing 20 metre, it was a different team".

In the same way he has insisted that the substitutes"have benefited us. Marc Navarro has given us depth. Sergio has been very intelligent. We did not resent defensively and the team performed well. It has much merit to stand so long in such a difficult field. In the end I think we deserved the draw, but then we would not have known what would have happened".

The coach has also insisted that "we started with seven home players and we had up to nine on the field. That is a good step for Espanyol in this second year of the project. The fact of competing in this way makes us happy and makes us see the future with a reasonable dose of optmism".