Madrid Dec 14 (IANS) 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
