Real Madrid 'united' despite recent defeats, says Rafael Benitez
Wednesday 25 November 2015 01:31, UK
Rafael Benitez insists his Real Madrid side remains "united" and has denied any rift with Cristiano Ronaldo.
Real suffered a humiliating 4-0 home defeat at the hands of rivals Barcelona in Saturday's Clasico, leaving Benitez's side six points behind the league leaders.
Club president Florentino Perez took the step of telling the media Benitez had the full support and confidence of the club and the manager himself was in bullish mood ahead of Wednesday's Champions League match with Shakhtar Donetsk.
"We're united," Benitez told reporters. "I'm grateful to the board of directors and to the president for their support.
"We've spoken about the mistakes we made, and that starts with me. We're out to do as well as we had been. These two defeats [against Barca and Sevilla] mustn't affect the impression of growth offered by this team.
"In football you can never guarantee results, but you can guarantee dedication and effort in our fight to give our fans something to shout about".
Asked whether he thought players still believed in him as a coach, Benitez said: "Of course. Otherwise, we wouldn't have gone 14 games unbeaten and qualified from the group stage with two matches to spare.
"We've had difficulties in these past two games. What we have to do is stick together to keep on doing as well as we had beforehand.
"The group has quality and professionalism and we all have to move in the same direction to achieve the results that we want".
Since Saturday's defeat at the Bernabeu, fresh reports have surfaced about an apparent breakdown of Benitez's relationship with Ronaldo but that talk was given short shrift.
"No, absolutely not," Benitez said. "Cristiano is a fantastic player and is crucial for us".
