PRESSURE RISING ON REAL MADRID

The defeat of Celta Vigo by Real Madrid on Sunday was a painful one and coach Xabi Alonso called for his team to quickly recover after that setback as they were going to face Manchester City in the Champions League. Los Blancos have managed to win only two out of the last seven matches in all competitions and the latest was a home loss of 2-0 to Celta in La Liga, which left them four points away from the leaders Barcelona.
Madrid ended the match with a reduced team of nine players after red cards were issued to Fran Garcia and Alvaro Carreras just before the one with Guardiola’s City in Europe on Wednesday.

"We are all upset, of course this was not the game we were hoping for, neither was the result," Alonso said to journalists at the Bernabeu.
"We must attempt to pass the incident as fast as possible. It is just three points."
"The Champions League match with City is our opportunity to react and we can remove this unpleasantness from our mouths."

Alonso’s team have had problems with their performance lately, and that led to rumors in the Spanish press that he might eventually leave the club. The question of whether he was playing for his future against City was posed to Alonso, who firmly stated that only the points were at stake.

"We’re playing for three points in the Champions League, in a competition we’re in a good position in, and that’s what we’re playing for," continued Alonso.
"We want to play well, we want to play a good game, we want to show we can play a lot better than we did today. We know that."