Valverde: ‘Winning the match was always going to be difficult and it was, but we pulled it off as a group’

Valverde and Rodrygo spoke to the media after the Real Madrid victory in the European Super Cup final. The midfielder, who scored the first goal of the game, said: ‘It’s a tremendous source of pride and motivation to inherit the number of a person I admire very much. Today I dedicate the goal to Kroos and my wife, who is always there for me. Now it’s time to enjoy it with the fans and my team-mates.’
‘For many of the players it was our first game and we’d only had a few training sessions. It was going to be difficult and that’s how it was, but we pulled it off as a group. Atalanta did very well in the first half, but with our first goal they opened up a little bit.’
The Vini Jr.-Bellingham duo
‘I hope we can continue to enjoy Vinicius and Bellingham in games like today. We’ll be at the back running for them.’
Rodrygo: ‘We wanted to start the season like we finished last season, with a title’
‘I’m very happy. It was what we wanted, to start the season like this, with a title, like we finished the last one. It gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the season, which is going to be very long.’
Training
‘We haven’t trained very much, but we were ready to deliver as quickly as possible. We’re improving and we’re going to do much better for the rest of the season. In the first half the pitch was a bit dry. In the second half, when it was wet, it was a different game. We’ll keep training to improve, because it’s a pleasure to be at this club.’
Playing with Mbappé
‘It’s the same as with Vini and Jude. Now another player has joined us, one of the best in the world. The coach asks us to change positions a lot and not to stand still.

Luka Modrić lifted his first title as Real Madrid captain at the National Stadium in Warsaw. A European Super Cup that he will never forget because with it he becomes the player who has won the most titles in the history of our club: 27.

The Croatian midfielder arrived at Real Madrid in 2012 and since then has won 6 European Cups, 5 Club World Cups, 5 European Super Cups, 4 LaLiga titles, 2 Copas del Rey and 5 Spanish Super Cups.