Ronaldo Araujo Aims Dig At Real Madrid Forward: “Needs To Focus On Playing Football”
Speaking after Barcelona’s 0-4 loss to Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey semi-final second leg at Camp Nou, defender Ronald Araujo lashed out at Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr, saying he needs to focus more on playing football than his antics on the pitch.
Vinicius was a thorn in the side for Barcelona as he scored the opening goal, won a penalty, and then assisted Karim Benzema’s third goal of the night.
At the same time, though, the Brazilian was involved in a few needless incidents with the likes of Gavi and Araujo himself, who was once again tasked with marking the Brazilian.
Opening up on the duel with Vinicius, Araujo said: “Vinicius needs to focus on playing football. I always try to respect my opponents, but I got a little heated tonight. Vinicius spent the whole match telling our players this and that… He kept saying things to the crowd, and it got heated.”
Talking about what went wrong for Barcelona on the night, Araujo added: “When we concede the second goal, the team falls over. We need to fix this. It’s the second time that it happens to us.”
“It’s a tough defeat, but I am sure that this won’t affect us a lot. Our most important goal is to win La Liga, after so much time,” he stated.
Roberto, Alonso lament over second-half display
Barcelona’s second captain, Sergi Roberto, also spoke to the media after the match and opened up on how things went wrong for the team, stating that the first goal on the cusp of half-time affected the hosts.
Their first goal really affected our morale,” he said. “In the first half, we were superior. After the second goal, we couldn’t play our game.”
Reiterating the point, Roberto added: “In the first half we didn’t deserve to lose. After that, the second goal killed us emotionally.”
On the flaring tempers and heated incidents on the pitch, Roberto said: “These things happen. We’ve played a good number of El Clasico matches and it’s normal to have fights, these are things that happen. We had to focus on our game.”
Meanwhile, Marcos Alonso, who started the game as a centre-back on the night, echoed Roberto’s sentiments, saying: “We were better in the first half. We had the match under control. It’s time to think and reflect on today’s match.”
