Madrid: 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."
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"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."
