Real Madrid coach Rafa Benitez admitted his side were wasteful in front of goal as his first game in charge of the Spanish giants ended in a 0-0 draw away to promoted Sporting Gijon.
The visitors had 27 shots on goal at El Molinon without finding the net and also failed to score in four of their eight pre-season friendlies since Benitez took over.
“We lacked precision in the final pass and accuracy in the shots on goal,” said the former Liverpool and Chelsea manager.
“In general, we lost the ball too much in the first-half and gave them a lot of opportunities to counter-attack. In the second-half we had more control, more possession, more danger but without that final pass to leave you with a clear chance at goal.
“In the first half we lacked things and in the second we had much more that we needed for this type of game. We will continue to tweak and improve things like the physical condition, the precision and the coordination between the players and in that sense I remain optimistic.”
Benitez started with Gareth Bale in a more central position to that which he has played wide on the right for the past two seasons.
However, even a change of position failed to bring the best out the Welshman as he failed to make his mark and ended up back on the wing as Benitez changed his formation in the search for a winning goal.
“We finished 4-3-3 to have the players who could arrive to score goals closer to the area, to have more control in midfield and width with the full-backs,” he added.
“You could see that at the end we just lacked the final pass or that our shots were more precise.”
Madrid captain Sergio Ramos was also critical of his side's first-half display which already leaves them playing catch up in La Liga to Barcelona who won 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao.
“It’s clear that the first half wasn’t good at all,” said the Spanish international.
“In the second-half the team controlled possession a lot more, we took the initiative and in the few chances we had we didn’t take them.
“We have to analyse it and continue improving. We would have liked to start with three points.
“It is never good not to win. Sporting pressed high, especially in the first half. In the second we had more control and we couldn’t kill the game with the chances.”
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Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
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Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
