Real Madrid senior player Dani Carvajal did not deny that his team was tired. Madrid has just been eliminated by Atletico Madrid in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey.
Los Blancos fell 2 4 at the Metropolitano on Thursday (18 January 2024), just four days after celebrating the success of winning the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. In the span of a week, Madrid has played three matches, two of which lasted up to 120 minutes.
Facing Atletico last night, Madrid fell behind twice before forcing the match to go into extra time. Jan Oblak’s own goal and Joselu’s goal leveled the game after Atletico took the lead thanks to the actions of Samuel Lino and Alvaro Morata.
However, Antoine Griezmann became a scourge for El Real after scoring Atletico’s third goal in the 100th minute. Until finally Rodrigo Riquelme’s goal gave the visitors the final blow.
“This week had a big impact on us, extra time in the semifinals, a long journey… in the end we played in a difficult stadium. But anyway, congratulations to the opposing team,” Carvajal told Teledeporte.
“We wanted to continue in this tournament, we were passionate, and we gave everything but we couldn’t. Now we have a few full weeks to focus on the league and increase our lead with the other teams.”
With the defeat to Atletico, Madrid failed to defend the Copa del Rey championship trophy after winning it last season. Apart from that, Madrid also repeated their defeat at Atletico headquarters after falling 1-3 last September.
“This [defeat] was just a coincidence. If we have to play again, I hope it doesn’t happen again. We’ve done our best but the results didn’t match expectations. It’s time for us to think about the Almeria match,” said the Real Madrid right-back.
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