Valencia coach Gennaro Gattuso spoke after Real Madrid were eliminated on penalties.
His players have been able to cope: “Very proud of the team for the game they played. We played with a great mentality. That’s the way we have to go. We lacked that against Cadiz, we have to continue because it’s a young team with quality and mentality. We showed it on the pitch for 120 minutes against a great team, with a great coach and great players. But we have to keep going.”
DConsequences on physical appearance: “I don’t think so. Massages after 90 minutes can happen. We worked hard, we ran a lot because you had to be very attentive and ran a lot when we lost the ball. It’s normal for the players to be more tired. “
Better than the opponent: “I don’t know if my team was better than the opponent. Tactically, we prepared with a totally different team to the one we’ve played for the past four months with two midfielders. We had chances to score , and we had a good game.”
⚽️🇪🇸 Real Madrid qualify for the Spanish Super Cup final by beating Valencia on penalties#lequipeFOOT #RealMadridValencia pic.twitter.com/q5Sxvhtfrv
— THE TEAM (@theteam) January 11, 2023
Courtois was the best in the game: “Courtois is a goalkeeper who has been playing at an incredible level for many years. My goalkeeper today also made four or five very good saves. We know Courtois is a great goalkeeper. We haven’t had luck. I have already won a World Cup on penalties but today we were unlucky.”
Can the team go further with rookies? “I always think the same thing. I don’t like to talk about it. We certainly have to do something because we lost a midfielder, Almeida can play as a pivot, but we have to get Guillamón back. Fran Pérez has much improved. But he’s a ‘crazy’ because in the 105th minute he shot when he had Cavani in the middle to pass him. Any player his age would have passed him. C he’s an improving boy.”