Pepe: We didn’t deserve to lose

Pepe has said Real Madrid played well enough to get at least a point against Valencia and certainly didn’t deserve to lose.

Despite taking a first half lead thanks to a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty, Los Blancos slipped to a 2-1 defeat, ending their 22-game winning won. They last experienced defeat against local rivals Atletico de Madrid in La Liga three months ago.

Talking to reporters after the match at the Mestalla, Portugal defender Pepe claimed the team had played well enough to take at least a point.

“We didn’t deserve to lose. It’s true that we didn’t get off to a good start in the second half of the game but we had our  chances.  There’s a lot left of the season and we’re still very much in the fight.  It would’ve been difficult to win everything until the end, we need to accept our errors and the loss.  We’re still La Liga leaders and we need to keep working hard.  There’s a lot left of La Liga and it’s going to be difficult,” he said.

And he added: “We’re not influenced by records, today we played well but in the end, we couldn’t get the win.”

The defender then looked ahead to the Copa del Rey tie against Atletico, saying the players want to get back on track as soon as possible.

“We need to get over it, we need to prepare well for the match because it’s going to be difficult, a very important tie.  We want to bring joy to our fans,” he stated.