Coach Jose Mourinho rejected the comparisons between Real Madrid and Barcelona, and emphasized that La Liga is a long race ahead of the Madrid derby with Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona is leading the championship race with 31 goals after 7 rounds, including a 7-2 victory over Racing Santander. The Catalan team is currently 6 points ahead of Real Madrid before Mourinho's team travels to the Metropolitano stadium.
Real Madrid has just suffered a defeat in La Liga this season, losing 0-1 to Real Betis. However, the Royal team had to wait until the last minutes twice to win. In the most recent round, Carlos Espi scored the decisive goal in the 90+1 minute to help Real Madrid defeat Elche.
When asked if Barcelona's scoring performance would worry him, Mourinho declined to put the two teams on the scale.
In terms of history and culture, Real Madrid cannot be compared to anyone. Therefore, I will not compare us to any team. I want to talk about myself, our problems and things that need to be improved" - Mourinho shared.
According to the Portuguese strategist, Real Madrid is still in the process of completion and current issues need to be seen in the context that the team has just worked together for a short time.
We understand the problems we are facing, but we are also clearly aware of the strength of the collective and the strengths that the team possesses. In matches where they have to wait until the last minute to score, the players all try their best both physically and mentally" - Mourinho said.
Mourinho believes Real Madrid needs patience in the long race: "This is a long race. The tournament is not always smooth and there will always be obstacles. But we will be there.
The Portuguese captain also admitted that Los Blancos could not maintain stability throughout the 90 minutes. The match against Elche is a typical example when they led 2-0 but let the opponent equalize before Carlos Espi scored the decisive goal.
This is a process. If coaches talk about development after 2, 3, 4, 5 or even 10 years of working, imagine when we only worked together for a few months" - Mourinho shared.
Before the derby, Mourinho also showed respect for Diego Simeone, who has led Atletico Madrid since he first worked at Real Madrid.
Mentioning Simeone's controversial statements in the past, Mourinho said that the Atletico Madrid coach is sometimes influenced by circumstances or uses statements as part of strategy.
Even as opponents, we still respect each other. After all, we are fighting in a war" - Mourinho said about Simeone.
The match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid takes place at 9:15 PM on September 20th (Vietnam time).
