<\/p>\n
Real Madrid had a fantastic evening on Wednesday, as they defeated Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie. The 15-time winners of the competition will take a three-goal lead into next week\u2019s return match, and while the contest is far from over, they can afford to enjoy themselves for now.<\/p>\n
As per Diario AS<\/a>, head coach Alvaro Arbeloa spoke of his delight at the result and performance when addressing the media post-match.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very happy with what the Bernabeu and the players have enjoyed. They deserve it, for what has been suffered and what has been worked on. It is clear that the feeling from outside was a lack of confidence in this team. We have shown that we are Real Madrid, we must never give up.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe knew very well how City play, how Pep plays, what he is looking for. We closed many passing lines, we tried not to jump in the pressure, which is what they look for to get in behind. We wanted to hurt them with the ball, if we turned them we could hurt them and that\u2019s how it was.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \n Fede Valverde was the matchwinner for Real Madrid, as he netted his first career hat-trick inside 20 first half minutes. Arbeloa was effusive in his praise for the Uruguayan midfielder.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where you put him. I almost get tired of talking to him a lot. He is the Juanito of the 21st century. Valverde is everything a Real Madrid player should be, he deserves a night like this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One blemish on the night for Real Madrid was Ferland Mendy being forced off at half time, and Arbeloa has confirmed that the French defender is facing another spell on the sidelines.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s injured, yes. It doesn\u2019t look good. I thank him for his effort, we were taking a risk by starting him two games in a row after so much time out. I took the risk and I thank him for that. It\u2019s wonderful to be able to train him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \n Despite the fact that Real Madrid will take a 3-0 lead to Manchester next Tuesday, Arbeloa is well aware that the tie is far from over.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s far away, it\u2019s qualifying. We know the team that City is and what awaits in Manchester. I already said that Pep was going to surprise with something and that\u2019s how it has been. In the second leg, he will do it again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post Alvaro Arbeloa heaps praise on hat-trick hero Fede Valverde – “He’s everything a Real Madrid player should be”<\/a> appeared first on Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Real Madrid had a fantastic evening on Wednesday, as they defeated Manchester City in the first leg of their Champions League Round of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5493,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5492\/revisions\/5493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Arbeloa: Valverde is the Juanito of the 21st century<\/span><\/h2>\n
Arbeloa: Mendy is injured<\/h2>\n
Arbeloa looks ahead to return leg<\/h2>\n