Real Madrid can retain the Champions League this season, says assistant boss Paul Clement.
The Englishman was part of the coaching staff that worked alongside Carlo Ancelotti as the club finally won the Decima last year in a memorable 4-1 win over Atletico de Madrid in Lisbon.
And they have one foot in the quarter finals of this season’s competition already having beaten Bundesliga outfit Schalke 2-0 in Germany with the second leg in Madrid coming up in a couple of weeks.
And speaking in an exclusive interview with ITV, Clement said with the injury list shrinking and key players coming back to full fitness, Real can be confident going into the final stages of the season.
“We’re into a very important part of the season now. Fighting on two fronts, top of the league and in the last 16 of the Champions League in a good position against Schalke,” he said.
And he added: “The only disappointment at this stage is we went out to Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey but we’re in a good position, with Ramos and James Rodriguez currently out injured, very likely that Ramos will return soon, we’ll be up to pretty much full strength.
“Our priority is to win the league and win the Champions League. That’s a very difficult thing to do, last year in the Champions League final, scoring the equaliser in the 93rd minute and then going on to win it just shows the fine lines that are there.”
The first thing you coaches should do right now is to ask your players to humble themselves . We have have seen players more talented , way better than them before. The president should address the issue right away otherwise this season will be a fiasco . I have been criticized the team since the start of the season but with the winning streak nobody noticed anything wrong with the way the team was playing .