Sergio Ramos Press Conference (video) | May 16, 2013
“If I am here it is for a reason. I can also answer questions just like the boss. We are here to talk about football, and not about controversy or the future of anyone. Today we decided it would be the players who would come out and I was delighted to be able to do it. I am not here to talk about Mourinho but to talk about the final.”
“The coaches take care of motivating the players for these matches and if there’s something that I like about our coach it’s that he tries to motivate the group as much as he can with talks, videos, preparing the match the best way possible. When we take to the pitch, it all depends on the players. He pulls out all the stops and then it’s up to us. We all row in the same direction so that things go right.”
“Being realistic, if we lose tomorrow the season will be a failure in terms of titles, but not on a personal level. It is not about trying to save a season with a title, it is about finishing the season well. You can lose, but there are ways of losing. The important thing is the group, over and above individuals.”
mrs-casillas:
Ready for tomorrow! - via Samis facebook
Real Madrid promote a football camp that will be held at the club’s Sport City this July
Injury update: Marcelo (hamstring) and Sergio Ramos (hamstring) returned to group training on Wednesday. Mesut Özil (ankle), Sami Khedira (?), and Álvaro Arbeloa (back) made their returns within the past week. Only Raphaël Varane (knee) is still in the sick bay. A reported four to six-week recovery is expected after his meniscus surgery on Monday.
Real Madrid leaving their team dinner | May 14, 2013
09/05/13 - Sergio Ramos at ATP Madrid
“I’m a big fan and great friend of Rafa Nadal. It’s good to see him, he’s the number one. “
Injury update: Sergio Ramos is not expected to be called up for Valladolid because he finished Tuesday’s game with a hamstring injury. [You can see him grimacing here.]
Ramos spent Thursday indoors. Reportedly, the goal is to have him fit in time for the Copa final on May 17th.
Real Madrid 2-0 Borussia Dortmund (3-4 agg) | UCL (Semi-final, 2nd leg)
- Benzema: 83’ (Özil assist)
- Ramos: 88’ (Benzema assist)
José Mourinho: ”The players gave everything and we nearly made it through. If we had scored sooner we’d have had more chance. Then, in the last period of the match, we almost did it, but in football you either achieve your aim or you don’t. The fans were fantastic, they helped a lot and believed until the end, it is a shame for them too. I hope that in the near future Real Madrid can reach the final.”
Sergio Ramos: “It’s a shame. Sometimes you lose, that is football. In Dortmund we should have played the way we did tonight. We feel for the fans. It’s a shame to have been so close but the missed chances in the first half were costly.”
Press conferences [more] | April 29, 2013
José Mourinho: “It is difficult to say what mathematical chance we have [of progressing]. I’ve already said everything to my players. The most important thing was to talk about the mistakes we made in Dortmund. At most clubs success belongs to everyone and failure to the coach. Sometimes football is not fair to one team, but it was in Dortmund and Borussia deserved to win. Anything is possible though.
We played badly in Dortmund and it’s difficult to believe we are going to do the same again. I want mental toughness from my players. We have to enjoy ourselves on the pitch, although we are in a difficult situation. We have to play it minute by minute and goal by goal until the last breath of the match. We may ultimately lose the game, but we will have no chance if we play like we did in Dortmund.
I feel this is the most important match in ten years for Real Madrid, but I also felt that in Dortmund and we played like [it was] a friendly. If I don’t win the Champions League nothing changes. There are many coaches who haven’t won it, so I have to thank God because I’ve done so twice. I have considered Borussia candidates to win the competition since the beginning of the season.”
Sergio Ramos: “There is no bigger motivation than playing in a UEFA Champions League final. I’ve been here for eight years and never played in one. There is nothing better – we have to believe we can get back into it.”
“We want revenge. We have negative memories from the first leg and we want to play. We know our fans will support us from the first minute but that won’t be of any use if we are not focused on the game. We know what we have to do and what happened in Dortmund. We know how good a team Borussia Dortmund are.
Qualifying will be much harder if they score. It is complicated for us but if we want to be in the final we have to beat the best teams. The result in Dortmund was fair – there is nothing left to say when you lose as we did last week. We just have to do our best.”
Training | April 29, 2013
Injury update: Ronaldo and Pepe returned to group training. Arbeloa and Marcelo were in the gym.
Yellow card alert: Essien (2) and Ramos (4)
Absences: Arbeloa and Marcelo (injury)
Call-ups (22)
- GK: Casillas, Adán, López
- D: Albiol, Carvalho, Coentrão, Nacho, Pepe, Ramos, Varane
- MF: Alonso, Callejón, Di María, Essien, Kaká, Khedira, Modrić, Özil
- F: Benzema, Higuaín, Morata, Ronaldo
Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Real Madrid | UCL (Semi-final, 1st leg)
- Ronaldo: 43’ (Higuaín assist)
“The best team by far won. Individually and collectively Dortmund were better and deserved their victory. They were first to every ball and were far more intense than us. We found it hard to hold onto possession when they pressed. I think all of my players gave it their all. We can come back.” — José Mourinho
“We were lacking in attitude and I point to myself first when I say that. It will be very difficult in the return leg at home but we must remain confident and try to react. When the draw for the semi-finals was made a lot of people thought this was going to be easy for us but this is a German team we are talking about; they are a great side.” — Sergio Ramos
Athletic Bilbao 0-3 Real Madrid | Higuaín 76’
“I’m happy because of the win and because I played and scoring a goal is important. We won well, but at times we had problems because Athletic are a good team. This is a stadium where we know how to play and it is a very special place because we won the League here last year.” — Gonzalo Higuaín
Athletic Bilbao 0-2 Real Madrid | Ronaldo 68’
- For the 3rd consecutive season, Ronaldo has scored at least 50 official goals in Spanish football (tied with Messi).
