Ronaldo blasts teammates as Madrid lose to Atletico

Cristiano Ronaldo has slammed his Real Madrid teammates after Saturday’s derby defeat to Atletico Madrid, claiming they would be top of the table if others were on the same level as him.

Antoine Griezmann’s second-half strike sealed a 1-0 win for Atletico which has left Zinedine Zidane’s side nine points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona, who also have a game in hand.

And in an explosive interview after the loss at the Santiago Bernabeu, Ronaldo blamed his team-mates for Madrid’s failing title challenge and believes criticism directed at his own performances is unfounded.

Read also: Ronaldo inspires Real Madrid to defeat Bilbao

“If everyone was as good as me, maybe we would be first,” said Ronaldo.

“I do not want to belittle anyone but when they are not the best it is difficult to win. I like to play with Karim, Bale and Marcelo.

“I do not mean that Jese, Lucas [Vazquez] and [Mateo] Kovacic are not good, they are very good, but to win a competition you need the best and that has been our main problem this year.

“I don’t know if it was poor preparation in the first half of the season but we’re having a lot of injuries and that hurts us.

“We had more chances and we deserved to win but football is like that.

“From what the press says it seems like I am doing [expletive] but the numbers and statistics do not lie. They are there.”

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