Pepe slams Madrid first-half showing in Villarreal defeat

Real Madrid were eliminated from the cup after fielding Denis Cheryshev, who was suspended for picking up three yellow cards in the completion while he was on loan with Villarreal last season.

But Benitez, who received a vote of confidence from president Florentino Perez last month, believes their fellow title contenders will also slip up at some stage.

Roberto Soldado was Villarreal’s match-winner as Los Blancos paid the full price for an inexplicably sloppy start, leaving themselves five points behind leading pair Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

“What I’m most anxious about is the attitude in that first half, in which the team wasn’t up to the level we want at any point”.

Real now sit five points behind joint leaders Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in La Liga, and Pepe called on his team-mates to stick together as they look to renew their assault in the title race.

“We have to analyse why we didn’t play the first half like the second one”. Rafa Benitez went on to assure everybody that huge win means he couldn’t be dubbed “defensive type of manager” anymore, and with opting to rest some of his first team players for that clash everybody in Madrid must feel confident before the trip to Vila-real.

“In the second half we improved a bit and we were capable of coming back but at 1-2 we weren’t able to keep our advantage when it was time to finish the game off”. The response in the second half showed the way forward but unfortunately we’ve lost three points by reacting late.

Jonathan Dos Santos had already struck the post for Villarreal before Soldado gave them the lead.

It did not take long for the hosts to break the deadlock however, as Bakambu again turned provider, this time finding Soldado in the penalty area, and from ten yards the striker slotted the ball past Keylor Navas.

“The team didn’t do what we expected to do at the start of the game”, he said after the game. We have to really respect the opponents.

Former England defender Gary Neville is still without a win in two games since taking over as Valencia coach after his new club had a man sent off and needed an Eibar own goal to rescue a 1-1 draw at the modest Basque side.

“We didn’t react well to the second half, but then we didn’t have the necessary accuracy in front of goal”.