Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo was overheard by Spain's Antena 3 channel saying he and his teammates need to improve their defending during a half-time talk among players, as Los Blancos beat Napoli 3-1 in the second leg of their round-of-16 on Tuesday.
Ronaldo was seen on camera saying "we don't know how to defend" to fellow Portugal international Pepe, just as Madrid left-back and vice-captain Marcelo was giving a talk in the tunnel before the players went out for the second half.
Madrid were overrun at times during the first half at the Stadio San Paolo, with Napoli going in at the break 1-0 ahead. But two Sergio Ramos headers early in the second period put Los Blancos in control of the tie, and in the end the competition holders qualified easily for the quarterfinals on a 6-2 aggregate score.
Afterwards coach Zinedine Zidane admitted that his team had not played well during the first half, although he rejected a suggestion from a reporter at the postgame news conference that the problem was the team's big-name attackers did not work hard enough to help their teammates.
Speaking in the mixed zone afterwards Karim Benzema, switched by Zidane to the left wing midway through the first half with Ronaldo going to centre-forward in an attempt to change the flow of the game, said it was annoying when pundits said the BBC's (Benzema, Gareth Bale and Ronaldo) lack of work rate meant the team suffered in defence.
"Of course it annoys us," Benzema said. "We do not just score goals, we also do a lot of work for the team. When we're out on the pitch we give it our all, working hard to win and helping our teammates. When there is a difficult game, people always point at us. We win by working. We do not have time to talk about these things. We just do our jobs."
Ronaldo's "we don't know how to defend" quote was put to Keylor Navas by Spanish reporters at the San Paolo. The Costa Rica international admitted that his side had been "disorganised" at times in the first half, but said usually the team were able to cover well.
"We do the best we can, even though often we were left disorganised," Navas said. "But that does not make us defend badly. Often we defend well, cover spaces, people come across. There are many positive things and other things we can improve."
Club captain Ramos told El Larguero radio show suggested that the positives that Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema provided on the ball more than balanced out any problems which came from having such an attacking lineup.
"The BBC give you something more positive than maybe other type of players up front," he said. "But when it comes to defending they give you something else. There is no need to point fingers at the BBC, just the opposite. We have played very good games with them."