MADRID, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid coach Santiago Solari on Thursday accepted the responsibility for his side’s humiliating defeat at home to CSKA Moscow in the Champions League.
With his side already assured of qualifying as leaders of their group, Solari rested key players, such as Sergio ramos, Luka Modric and Tony Kroos and saw how nothing went right in a 3-0 home defeat, which is Real Madrid’s biggest ever home defeat in the competition.
Hardly any players apart from Marco Asensio and Vinicius Jr performed well against the Russians and midfielder Isco made matters worse with an angry reaction to boos from the stand.
“I'm sad because we'd already qualified and we wanted to close out the group stage with a good night and it was not like that,” said Solari in the Spanish press on Thursday morning.
“I'm sad because of the result. We took risks and the game could have been different... today we were not decisive at either end of the pitch.”
“The match was an opportunity to give some players some game time, either because they don't usually get many minutes or because they have come back from injury.”
“We took the risk of fielding a line-up like that and I take responsibility for it,” he explained.
The coach also discussed the incident when Isco, who has only started one game since the start of November, reacted to the criticism to the stands with an angry gesture.
“We don't like whistles towards anyone but we were not good and we have to accept that. It's normal that they whistle. The fans express themselves because they do not like the result,” he commented.
“I have not seen Isco’s reaction, but it's frustrating to lose at home and it's not what we expected” concluded Solari.
