Marcelino: “I think we deserved more”

Marcelino García Toral feels Athletic Club can be proud of their spirited performance despite their 1-2 defeat against Real Madrid in Bilbao on Wednesday night.

Karim Benzema put the visitors 1-2 up in the first six minutes before Oihan Sancet pulled one back for Athletic less than five minutes later with a wonderful strike.

“I’m very happy with how the players responded,” Marcelino said. “They played well against a great opponent. I’m only upset with the result.

“Not picking up any points against Real Madrid across these two games seems unfair to me. I think we deserved more. Nevertheless, we have to look at the positive and we’re getting better with every match.”

The Athletic manager said it was a “shame we conceded two goals” in the first six minutes, believing they dramatically altered the match.

He said: “It made everything difficult for us. It took us a while to recover from the first goal and we were a bit unlucky with the second, but that’s football. From then on, the team’s response was fabulous.

“Real Madrid created few chances and we had several good combinations, we pushed forward until the end and we were only missing that second goal. I have to congratulate Madrid, but also my own players.”