Madrid: Real Madrid coach Rafael Benitez admitted his side were wasteful in front of goal as his first game in charge of the Spanish giants ended in a 0-0 draw away to promoted Sporting Gijon.
The visitors had 27 shots on goal at El Molinon without finding the net and also failed to score in four of their eight pre-season friendlies since Benitez took over.
“We lacked precision in the final pass and accuracy in the shots on goal,” said the former Liverpool and Chelsea manager.
“In general, we lost the ball too much in the first-half and gave them a lot of opportunities to counter-attack. In the second-half we had more control, more possession, more danger but without that final pass to leave you with a clear chance at goal.
“In the first half we lacked things and in the second we had much more that we needed for this type of game. We will continue to tweak and improve things like the physical condition, the precision and the coordination between the players and in that sense I remain optimistic.”
Benitez started with Gareth Bale in a more central position to that which he has played wide on the right for the past two seasons.
However, even a change of position failed to bring the best out the Welshman as he failed to make his mark and ended up back on the wing as Benitez changed his formation in the search for a winning goal.
“We finished 4-3-3 to have the players who could arrive to score goals closer to the area, to have more control in midfield and width with the full-backs,” he added.
“You could see that at the end we just lacked the final pass or that our shots were more precise.”
Barcelona, meanwhile, exacted revenge for their Spanish Super Cup defeat to Athletic Bilbao to get off to a winning start in La Liga thanks to Luis Suarez’s solitary second-half strike.
Lionel Messi’s troubles from the penalty spot continued as he saw a first-half spot-kick saved by Gorka Iraizoz.
However, his strike partner ensured that miss didn’t prove costly as Suarez volleyed home early in the second-half to hand the champions all three points.
Luis Enrique’s men were returning to the ground where they were thrashed 4-0 in the first leg of the Super Cup just nine days ago and were without the suspended Gerard Pique, whilst Neymar wasn’t fit to take part after just returning to training following a bout of the mumps.
Athletic were also missing a number of first-team regulars, though, and struggled to match their high-energy performances in the two Super Cup matches after also playing in the Europa League on Thursday.
After a quiet start the game burst into life when referee Carlos del Cerro Grande controversially pointed to the spot when Suarez went down under a challenge from Gorka Elustondo.
However, Messi failed to open the scoring from the resulting spot-kick as Iraizoz flew to his right to make a brilliant save.
The Argentine has now missed five penalties for club and country in the past year and failed to find the net in 14 of the 63 penalties he has taken for Barca.
Iraizoz produced an even better stop moments later to prevent Suarez sweeping home Sergi Roberto’s cross to ensure Athletic went in level at the break.
The Uruguayan wasn’t to be denied just eight minutes into the second-half, though, as he connected sweetly on his left-foot with Jordi Alba’s cross.
Roberto was deputising in an unusual position at right-back after replacing the injured Dani Alves midway through the first-half, but his impressive showing continued as he smashed a shot off the bar from a narrow angle as Barca threatened to double their advantage.
