Real Madrid's second-half display not good enough, says Rafa Benitez
Rafa Benitez lamented Real Madrid's inability to "manage the situation" as they suffered their first defeat of the season against Sevilla.
The visitors dominated the opening half an hour at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan and deservedly took the lead through a bicycle kick from Sergio Ramos.
However, Sevilla hit back with goals from Ciro Immobile, Ever Banega and Fernando Llorente, before James Rodriguez netted a late consolation.
"It looked as if the game was under control, but it turned out it wasn't," Benitez said. "In the second half we lacked consistency and didn't know how to manage the situation."
"We played really well in the opening 30 minutes and were in control in every sense and then we allowed them to concede from a set-piece. We started the second half well and then we made more errors. Then it was a case of who wanted it more."
"They made the most of mistakes by us to get the third goal and we scored a second at the end, but it wasn't enough. For a lot of the first half we saw a really good Real Madrid performance, and in the second half we couldn't keep that going".
The defeat means Real missed out on the chance to regain top spot in La Liga and are now three points behind arch rivals Barcelona, who they face at the Bernabeu in their next match in a fortnight's time.
Benitez was without first-choice goalkeeper Keylor Navas, defender Marcelo and striker Karim Benzema, while Ramos was forced off just moments after scoring with a shoulder injury, and the coach is hopeful his stricken players will recover in time for the Clasico on November 21.
"We have time for the missing players to return. [The Clasico] is a unique game and I hope that the team will react well after this defeat," the Spaniard said.
"We have 10 or 15 days for them to be back in the best possible condition and a game of this magnitude is always different. Hopefully the team will go into it in good shape".
Ramos was more scathing in his assessment of Real's display.
"Everyone can use the adjective they want to describe our performance, but we did not play well and that is reflected in the result," the defender told Canal Plus.
"I think we were a bit static, although I can't explain why. League titles are won by the finest of margins and [on Sunday] we lost three very important points. We need to change our mentality."