MADRID (AFP) – Real Madrid head coach Santiago Solari said that his team’s efforts to rediscover their best form would not be a “path of roses”, after the club’s heaviest-ever European home defeat against CSKA Moscow on Tuesday.
The Champions League holders crashed to a 3-0 loss to the Russians at the Santiago Bernabeu, although they had already qualified as Group G winners before kick-off.
“I played a team with a lot of young players,” said Solari, who made seven changes to the starting XI which beat Huesca 1-0 in La Liga at the weekend.
“The match was used to give many players time who needed it, some because they started and others because they returned from injury, and to give rest to others to try and stay alive in all competitions.”
Real has struggled for much of this campaign after seeing coach Zinedine Zidane and star player Cristiano Ronaldo leave in the close-season, with Julen Lopetegui sacked as boss in October.
JUVE FALLS
In Bern, Guillaume Hoarau scored in either half as Young Boys inflicted a 2-1 defeat on Juventus in their final Champions League group game on Wednesday in Switzerland, but the Italians still took top spot in Group H after Manchester United lost by the same scoreline to Valencia.
The Swiss champions proved too hot to handle for the Cristiano Ronaldo-led Italians whose 26-match unbeaten away run going back to November 2017 ended in freezing temperatures in Bern.
France forward Hoarau slotted in the first after half an hour from the spot at the Stade de Suisse, blasting in the second after 68 minutes to lift the spirits of his already-eliminated side who finished bottom of the group.
Paulo Dybala – who scored a hat-trick in Juve’s 3-0 home win in Turin – came off the bench just after the second goal and pulled one back for Massimiliano Allegri’s side ten minutes from time and had a second disallowed in injury time.
