Real Madrid defender Nacho Fernandez says Los Blancos will be in for a tough time on Wednesday evening against Schalke as the Germans have a point to prove.
The two sides meet at the same stage as they met at last year, with Roberto di Matteo’s side hoping they can avoid a repeat of the mauling they were handing out, losing 9-2 overall.
And speaking in an interview with Bwin, Nacho said his team would be wary of the hosts on Wednesday. He picked out former Real man Klass Jan Hunterlaar as the one to keep an eye on as he’s a proven goalscorer at the top level.
“Schalke have improved with respect to last year. I’ve watched a few of their games and they’ve strengthened defensively. They have top quality players up front who can cause you problems. But as long as we focus on ourselves and play well, we’ll get a good result,” he stated.
“Huntelaar is a world class forward. He loves scoring goals as we have seen him do before with his club as well as his national team. Playing against players like this provides you with loads of motivation and it will be a fantastic game. We know how strong we are, home and away. The players we have up front provide us with a lot, we usually score in almost all our matches so if I had to put money on it, I would say Real Madrid are going to score.
“I’m sure they’ll have some unfinished business they’ll want to deal with from last year. At the end of the day this is a new match, a different knockout stage. Schalke will be very eager to make up for result from last season.”
