MADRID (AFP)– Former Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff says Real Madrid are wearing their legs out because they cannot dominate games the way Barcelona does.
Jose Mourinho's team trail Barcelona by seven points in the league after drawing 0-0 at Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday despite battling hard in the Riazor Stadium.
Barcelona beat Mallorca 3-0 earlier the same day to cement their position at the top of the league.
"Where Barca dominates and marks time thanks to its possession of the ball, Madrid wears itself out infinitely because they always, always recover the ball very far from the opponents' area," Cruff wrote in a weekly column in El Periodico de Catalunya published Monday.
"And that means running many more kilometres, and doing it much faster, as much going forward as going back. To attack and if you don't finish off the game then to defend."
Real Madrid could have won in the Riazor, he said.
"Madrid, with a base of good footballers, which they have, always have good chances, but they pay a toll in wearing themselves out too much by not controlling the games."
A three-time European Footballer of the Year, 63-year-old Cruyff started his career as a teenager at Ajax before going on to enjoy huge success with Barcelona, whom he then coached to the 1992 European Cup and four straight league titles between 1991 and 1994.
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