Poor 20 minutes cost us – Pepe

Poor 20 minutes cost us – Pepe

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Pepe GI

Real Madrid defender Pepe has bemoaned the poor 20 minutes in the first half in which Los Blancos conceded twice against Wolfsburg to slip to a shock defeat in the first leg of their Champions League quarter final tie.

The hosts, the huge underdogs and appearing for the first time at this stage of the competition, netted through a 18th minute Ricardo Rodriguez penalty and a 25th minute Max Arnold strike from close range.

Los Blancos had plenty of chances to haul themselves back into contention on the night and saw a Cristiano Ronaldo effort wrongly ruled out for offside. Gareth Bale also saw a penalty appeal waved away.

The loss means Zinedine Zidane’s men have plenty of work to do next week at home if they want to progress in the competition.

Speaking to reporters, Pepe stated: “We had a bad 20 minutes that they took advantage of. We had chances, we didn’t take them and we have to congratulate the opponent. We didn’t start well in the first few minutes and you pay for that in the Champions League.

“We knew they were a team who would go out to counter-attack a lot and after the penalty we had to regroup, because we didn’t want to concede more goals. At the same time, all we needed to do was score a goal.”

He added:  “We’ll have our fans in the return leg, giving everything. There were 20 minutes in which our performance dropped and that time coincided with their two goals and that is costly.”

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