Real Madrid fell 2-1 against Manchester City at the Bernabéu, but Xabi Alonso's role as head coach of the team is not in immediate risk. Despite the defeat (which is far from critical, as the team is still in the top 8 of the Champions League table with two matchdays remaining), the team competed with a much higher intensity than last Sunday against Celta de Vigo, where they lost 2-0.
There have been rumours that the club is thinking on firing coach Xabi Alonso after a series of bad results in LaLiga that have caused them to drop the first place in the competition. But after the match, every player that was interviewed by the press spoke candidly about the coach, displaying a sense of unity that they want to carry to the fans, who are getting tired of the bad results and frequently whistled and booed at the Bernabéu last night.
Rodrygo, who finally stopped a drought with his first at Real Madrid since March, said that "things aren't going well, and I wanted to show that we're all in this together, with our coach. There's a lot of talks, but I wanted to say this: we're all in this together, and we need this unity to keep moving forward and achieve our goals".
Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said that "I think today we showed that we're behind the manager, that we played well, giving 100%", and think that he feels they played a good game but "it just wasn't meant to be".
Defender Raúl Asencio said very similar things: "the only thing I can say is that the dressing room understands the message that Xabi Alonso conveys, that the dressing room is 100% behind Xabi Alonso, and that the day-to-day life at Valdebebas is very, very good", and Jude Bellingham said that the coach is "great" and he personally has an excellent relationship with him.