Players shoulder blame for Madrid failure
Iker Casillas insists the players are the ones to blame for Real Madrid's latest Champions League failure and pledged to make it up to the club's fans.
With this year's final being played at their Bernabeu home and having spent around 250million euros on new players last summer, Madrid had invested a lot of hope, energy and money into trying for a record 10th European Cup title this year.
But, for the sixth successive campaign, they were dumped out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage after a 1-1 draw with Lyon at the Bernabeu resulted in a 2-1 aggregate loss.
Despite the spotlight falling on coach Manuel Pellegrini, who was given a vote of confidence by director general Jorge Valdano following the match, goalkeeper Casillas believes it is the players who are responsible.
He said yesterday: "Pellegrini has the support of all the players. He knows that. The first person who is blamed is the coach, but the main ones to blame are us."
Spain captain Casillas, who has won four Primera Division and two Champions League titles amongst a host of trophies during a decade in the first team at Madrid, added: "I want to apologise to the fans, but I also want them to know we will never give up. It would be easy to throw in the towel. The feelings amongst the dressing room, the club and the fans after yesterday's match are ones of disappointment, but we want to rid ourselves of this with the league."
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Monday 28 May 2012
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