Saturday 27 February 2016 20:17, UK
Zinedine Zidane gave a scathing assessment of Real Madrid's performance as they slipped to a damaging 1-0 defeat to Atletico at the Bernabeu on Saturday.
Real never really looked like penetrating the formidable Atleti rearguard, as they were caught on the counter-attack by Antoine Griezmann, who netted the winner to secure Diego Simeone's men a third successive league win on their city rivals' turf.
The result sees Real remain nine points behind leaders Barcelona, having played a game more, and Zidane could not hide his disappointment at Real's meek display.
"We were not as ready for the game as we thought we were," Zidane said. "We needed to run more, against a rival who had played just three days earlier.
"In a game like this, you have to do more, run more, put our foot in more, do more. If you don't do this against the second-best team in the league, this is what happens."
Zidane also moved to question the mental strength of his side, and felt they should have had the edge after a midweek break.
"All I can say is that it's not just about our fitness," Zidane added. "The players are not unfit, it's a question of everything. We didn't play the game we had prepared.
"They played on Wednesday and had less time to recover, and look at the game they played. So it is a mental question. We lacked a bit of everything.
"I told the players that we have to keep on going, I can't be happy with this performance and neither are they, but we can't give up. I have a clear idea of what went wrong today."
Opposite number Simeone said Atletico's win was proof that collective effort can triumph over individual strength.
"This is a great moment to see that hard work, stability, collective effort and teamwork, rather than individual effort, pays off," Simeone said.
"Once again Atletico Madrid fans can feel proud of their team. Atletico continues to grow, building towards a better future, with young players who keep on improving. The truth is we are very happy to be a part of this Atletico team."
And the Argentine coach praised Griezmann, who before Saturday had not scored in the league since January 17 and had come in for criticism for failing to find the net against the top opponents.
"The good thing about Griezmann is that the reason why people expect so much of him is that he has earned that expectation," Simeone added.
"And luckily, today he scored again."
