Rafa Benitez congratulated his players on the effort against Valencia after playing one man down during more than 20 minutes.
“The ten minutes we are not in control cannot stain the rest. Scoring when we are down to ten men and receiving a goal one minute later, we don’t know if that’s our rival’s merit. In any case we have to praise our players on their good work,” the Los Blancos managers said at the press conference after the game.
“We have played a great match. In the first 35 minutes we were in control. In the second half, being down to ten men, we made a big effort. We had chances to win and to lose,” he added.
Asked about Karim Benzema’s substitution, Benitez admitted the Frenchman “had a problem in his ankle.” “He did everything he had to do, but we replaced him in order to gain control,” the manager added.
Journalists asked Benitez again about his possible dismissal and the Spaniard said he “cannot prevent people from speculating.” “What I can do is working like we have today, although we haven’t earned all three points,” he concluded.
