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Coach Jose Mourinho of Madrid's "Real" team did not spare praise for his players after winning an incredible football thriller in the Champions League. "Real" defeated "Manchester City" 3-2 in their first D group match.
The Spaniards, who played attractive football, found themselves in trouble - Roberto Mancini's team had surged ahead twice, but in the 87th minute Karim Benzema equalized beautifully, and in the 90th minute Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winning point against Joe Hart, shattering all of the efforts of the English champions.
"The most important thing is that I can be proud of my team. I told the players the same thing. Matches like this one we can lose, but we fought like beasts to the very end," said J. Mourinho, who recently had to answer for losses in the local championship.
"Today we were more aggressive, physically stronger. We dominated and ultimately won. We conceded two goals, but we did not give up and fought. Then we leveled the difference, but even then we did not stop," said the former coach of London's "Chelsea" and Milan's "Inter." - "We started the match not trusting ourselves, but the most important thing is that the players felt a duty. This characteristic is the DNA of last year's team. We took a significant step in such a tough group."
69th minute, Real fans were stunned when after another attack by their idols, the "Manchester City" team surged ahead, with Edin Dzeko finishing the attack with a goal. Later, Spanish team fans had to gasp again - in the 85th minute, A. Kolarov scored a goal, but then K. Benzema and C. Ronaldo played confidently until the end.
"The situation is difficult. Not difficult because we lost, but because we had a 2-1 advantage before the end of the match. We have to improve because sometimes we start playing very withdrawn, allowing opponents to play in our half of the field. That was our mistake," said R. Mancini.
R. Mancini was asked at the press conference if the English champions lost the battle due to a naive approach that showed in the final minutes of the match.
"We cannot talk about experience again. We have players who compete on the international stage. We have to improve. We have to be disappointed with this result. We scored two goals and that's good. Our only mistake was playing withdrawn," said R. Mancini.
C. Ronaldo, who had shown great performances in the match but had not been able to finish attacks with goals, shone when "Real" needed it most.
"I celebrate when I need to. These matches were very important, and we fought seriously. The fact that I didn't celebrate a goal in the match against 'Granada' is not important. The most important thing is that we won now. We played very well. In the first half, we created opportunities. In the second half, the opponents also played well. We believed we could win, and we did. We knew it was possible," said C. Ronaldo.
