Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso praised his team after their 3-1 victory over Villarreal, with special mentions for two-goal scorer Vinícius Júnior, as he said, “he played a very good match, not just because
of the goal. In the first half, he was very unbalancing. I like to see Vini smile. I’m happy for him and for the team, we wanted to end this cycle on a high note”.
Xabi Alonso on changes at half-time
“Maybe we needed more speed in the first half. When we got there, we created chances, but we lacked dynamism. Marcelino’s teams are very well prepared and despite everything we had chances to score and at half-time I told them we were playing a good game, that we had to play calmly. It was a serious game and now we move on.”
Xabi Alonso on Jude Bellingham
“I’m sure he’ll be better when he comes back after two weeks of training. He’s going to be very important in the next phase in October. We’re going to have the time that Jude missed in pre-season and we have a busy schedule.”
Xabi Alonso on penalties
“Kylian will continue to take them, he’s the penalty taker, but today they decided among themselves who would take them.”
Xabi Alonso on Kylian Mbappé’s sprain
“We can’t say whether he’ll play for France or not, they’ll have to assess him in their national team. If it gets complicated, he won’t be able to play, but we can’t say anything right now.”
Xabi Alonso on the refereeing
“If Marcelino didn’t want to talk about it, I’m not going to get into it either.”
Xabi Alonso on Fede Valverde
“A very good game on the right wing. He’s always willing to play wherever he’s needed. He helped us a lot in the transitions, a great game from Fede.”
Xabi Alonso on Valverde’s position
“I think we’ve all seen how he’s played. He had a very good game, and today, due to our needs, he played there. He’s very generous, he wants to feel useful wherever he plays. He’s never put up any obstacles.”
Xabi Alonso on whether he’d start Bellingham in the derby given the choice again
“My answer won’t make any difference.”
Xabi Alonso on whether this was Vini’s most complete game with him
“It was a very good game. He also played very well against Levante. He’s very important to the team because of his ability to unbalance the opposition and everything he creates. We saw a great game from him.”
