In the latest pre-season matches of Real Madrid, they have lost matches against Bayern Munich and against Valerenga but Rafael Benitez believes that these recent defeats are not a reason to start getting worried about his team and about their chances of competing with Barcelona in the upcoming La Liga season.
“We’re talking about pre-season, friendlies and the team created enough to score. Our precision let us down. We’re not a hundred percent satisfied, but I’ll take away the positives, I’m pleased with how we pressured, the way we won the ball back and created chances. We’re missing players. Our top-scorers aren’t here. If you gave them 20 chances then these players would have scored, but the important thing is to create openings, that the team is solid and press in the opposition area as we did.” Real Madrid’s Rafael Benitez said after his team could only muster a goal-less draw when playing against Valerenga on August 9.
Cristiano Ronaldo was not featured in this match as he had picked up a minor injury and Benitez decided to leave the Portuguese player off of the pitch. There also were a number of other important players which did not perform in this friendly encounter including: Pepe, Benzema, Toni Kroos and Sergio Ramos.
The match finalized with a final scoreboard of 0-0 as neither side was able to score a single goal even though Real Madrid dominated the game and launched a total of 34 shots.
Prior to this underwhelming result, Real Madrid had played against Bayern Munich and lost against the German club as Bayern Munich came out on top with a 1-0 triumph and lifted the Audi Cup at the Allianz- Arena.
These aren’t the kind of results that Rafael Benitez and the supporters of the Spanish club want to see especially now that the Spanish League is edging closer and closer. Barcelona is going through a much more impressive pre-season as they have already sealed yet another silverware after defeating Sevilla and won the UEFA Super Cup.
Barcelona are the main rivals of Real Madrid and even though Rafael Benitez said that he is calm about his players despite their latest results, it’s something that should start to concern Benitez as he has a tough road ahead of him in his first season as the coach of Real Madrid who are not only expected to compete against Barcelona in the Spanish League but also make a genuine charge in the Champions League.
