Xabi Alonso says Real Madrid are now in Champions League mode after derby defeat

Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso insisted his team are in “Champions League mode” after a 5-2 derby defeat to Atletico Madrid.

Julian Alvarez scored twice as Atletico came from behind to claim a dominant derby win on Saturday and hand Real their first LaLiga defeat of the season.

Alonso admitted that while his side “didn’t compete well enough”, they must now turn their attention to Champions League action, which takes place on Tuesday with an away clash to Kairat Almaty.

“I think that both in victory and defeat we have to last for 24 hours, the feeling, for better or for worse. Then obviously we make analyses,” Alonso told reporters in a pre-match press conference.

“I think it’s not just the attitude, I think it was rhythm and also tactical things that we have analysed, things about the game.

“I don’t just explain everything with attitude, that’s a bit simplistic, but things we have to improve at the level of play, at the level of solutions and at the level of rhythm to compete better.

“We didn’t compete well enough – 24 hours have passed, we have done an analysis, it has stayed inside so we can use it and now we are already in Champions League mode.”

Tuesday’s game is Real’s second Champions League fixture this season after beating Marseille 2-1 in their opener earlier this month, where two successful Kylian Mbappe penalties proved to be the difference.

Alonso added: “I think we are still in the construction phase, in the phase of improving. I don’t know how long it will last, but we are still taking steps forward. And to take two steps forward even sometimes you have to take one step back.

“We want to keep improving, we want to keep defining how we want to be, both on a football level and on a team personality level. That’s where we’ll be able to improve.”

Kairat boss Rafael Urazbakhtin hopes his side can find form similar to their qualifying campaign ahead of a tough test against Real.

The Kazakhstan side’s qualification campaign culminated with a penalty shoot-out win against Celtic in the play-offs last month, but they were beaten 4-1 by Sporting Lisbon in their first game of the league phase.

“Real Madrid don’t have any obvious weaknesses. We found a few small things, but every team has those,” Urazbakhtin said in quotes reported on the UEFA website.

“We’ll try to build on what we saw. We have a strong team spirit and are well organised. We’ll try to play like we did in qualifying. A lot depends on our fans.”