With El Clasico 12 days from now, Real Madrid head into the international break prior to the highly-anticipated November 21 clash with Barcelona on a terrible note, losing their first game of the season.
Los Blancos traveled to Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán on Sunday, the very same ground where the Blaugrana lost 2-1, to lock horns with Sevilla, and were defeated 3-2, putting a halt to Europe's only remaining unbeaten run.
The defeat handed Luis Enrique’s crew the golden opportunity to leapfrog their rivals to La Liga summit, courtesy of their 3-0 win over Villarreal, and are now three points ahead of Rafael Benitez’s side.
Nonetheless, Galacticos James Rodriguez, who scored in Sunday’s game 27 minutes after coming on, insists that the 10-time Champions League winners have no reason to fear the in-form Catalan giants.
"It's easy to name names now, but when the team wins, we do it together, and when we lose, we also lose together," James stated after the weekend defeat.
"We'll have to see what happens and be ready for our next match.
"They're [Barcelona] on form, but we have nothing to fear, we're Real Madrid. It's going to be an interesting match.
"I felt good [coming on against Sevilla]. I hadn't played for 60 days. I want to contribute and help the team win."
With Colombia set to clash with Chile and Argentina in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, James has been called up to the national side. Previous call-ups to the national side have resulted in injuries to the former Monaco ace, but the player admits that he is fully committed to Los Cafeteros nonetheless.
"I'll be there with them [Colombia]," added Rodriguez.
