Real Madrid already have a one foot in the quarter finals of UEFA Champions Leage as they have secured victory in an all important away game against Schalke 04 with the help of goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcelo.
Coming into this fixture against Schalke, Cristiano Ronaldo was struggling for form and he was under pressure to score against the Germans. The Portuguese superstar responded well to this pressure by scoring through a brilliant header in the 26th minute to put Real Madrid ahead. Both the sides struggled to create opportunities in the first half and the early second half but an excellent shot of Marcelo ensured the victory for Real Madrid in 79th minute.
Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti praised the display of his players, especially Cristiano Ronaldo, in his press conference.
“Ronaldo is back,” Ancelotti said. “He scored, he made an assist – he did well.”
“I’m happy. It’s never easy coming into such a game after our period in La Liga. But the players showed good attitude and put in a good performance. It went well.
“The game did not allow brilliance, with Schalke trying to hit us on the counter attack. After we went 1-0 up we controlled the game. We tried to score the second and thankfully we did.”
The Real Madrid boss was also full of praise for left-back Marcelo for his brilliant goal.
a There was nothing particularly special about it. The only reason it surprised me is because I’m not used to seeing him score with his right. I was so surprised by that goal that I didn’t make my way onto the pitcha .
Schalke coach Roberto di Mattio said after the match that he is happy with the efforts of his players but he was unable to hide his disappointment after the defeat and feels they could easily have come away with a better result.
“We wanted more and we tried hard to get a better result. We had our chances in the first half and then hit the crossbar after the break when it was still 1-0. We would have seen a very different result had we scored there,” the Schalke boss said.
“We had our chances, but failed to take them. You get little chances in games like this and you have to convert them.
“It is never easy against Real Madrid. They are very strong on the counter attack. We all saw it toward the end of the first half when we allowed them too much space.a