Former Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso recalled his time at Real Madrid and said Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi had caused a lot of damage to him, ex-coach Jose Mourinho and defender Sergio Ramos.
The 36-year-old made 158 appearances for the Spanish giants from 2009 to 2014. He also helped the squad clinch the La Liga title in 2011-12 and Champions League in 2013-14.
"Messi has done a lot of damage to me, Mourinho and Sergio Ramos, we talked about him a lot," the former Real Madrid player was quoted as saying by Marca on Wednesday.
"We only started to control Messi when I was marking him.
"We sacrificed positions for me to mark him, but once we controlled Messi the matches were even," Alonso added.
The midfielder also recalled Real Madrid's rivalry with Barcelona in the El Clasico and said: "The famous 5-0 made us change a lot of things. At that time we weren't ready to compete, a year later we were. Barcelona were dominant, but by the end of 2011 we knew we could strike against anybody in four moves."
--IANS
sam/bg
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