Manuel Pellegrini hit out at his Malaga players for struggling to a two-legged win over Cacereno in the Copa del Rey.
The Costa del Sol outfit had won the away leg 4-3 but fell to a 1-0 defeat at home on Tuesday night to only progress through to the next round on away goals.
For Pellegrini, his much-changed line-up had a lot to answer for.
“Without attitude you cannot play football, you have to play with intensity for the 90 minutes and you have to ensure there is the technical difference, because if not, any team can equal you,” declared the Coach after the match against the Segunda Division B side.
“Everyone must take responsibility for their actions, whilst these games are here so that certain players can benefit.
“He who is mentally strong and motivated has much greater potential to achieve something. Always the lesser team will have more motivation than the higher level side, the good thing we did was to qualify.
“Since winning the first leg we seemed to think the qualification to the next round was ensured, but in fact we were very lucky to get it. That is why football is so popular, because it levels everything in the field.
“If we had been eliminated it would not have been fair, perhaps the difference between the two teams in the first leg was greater than the score there reflected.”
