Luka Modric has said sometimes the Real Madrid team has to suffer in order to enjoy more the times when they win.
Los Blancos lost 4-3 to German side Schalke at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night but scraped into the Champions League quarter finals after a 5-4 aggregate win. Former Real forward Klass Jan Huntelaar netted six minutes from the end setting up a frantic finale but the holders saw the game out – just.
Modric, who made his comeback from a three month injury lay-off in the game, admitted the players were relieved to have made it into the next round and admitted if was an uncomfortable evening for all involved.
“It’s very important that we qualified for the next round,” he told reporters afterwards. And he added: “We did not play well but sometimes you have to suffer. I don’t look for reasons, it’s very early now. I’m with the team now and I’m very happy.
“We need to play as a team and hopefully we’ll return to how we did it at the beginning of the season. We have the quality and I think we’ll see the best version of Madrid in the next game.”
Los Blancos has had a difficult 10 days in which a damaging draw at home to Villarreal and a defeat to Athletic Bilbao have also seen them knocked off the the top of La Liga.
