Roberto Di Matteo feels a little bit of luck would have helped his Schalke side to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the expense of Real Madrid.
Schalke came within a goal of qualifying for the last eight of the competition after they handed out a 4-3 defeat to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu last night. However, their 2-0 first leg loss at home turned out to be decisive and the European champions went through to the quarter-finals on a 5-4 aggregate scoreline.
When Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored Schalke’s fourth goal of the night in the 84th minute, they were one goal away from causing an upset, but despite a frantic last few minutes, they failed to find that decisive break.
Di Matteo lauded his players for their effort on the night and believes that they gave their best shot. However, he feels that with a little bit of luck they could have shocked the European champions on their home turf and progressed in the competition.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brace last night, adding to the first goal that he scored in the away leg in Germany and Di Matteo feels that the Portuguese superstar made the ultimate difference in their last 16 tie.
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“We played a great game and we dreamt of going through”, Di Matteo told UEFA.
“We scored four goals against Real Madrid, but we are not going through to the next round. We are happy, but also sad. We had a little bit of bad luck, we hit the post in both games.
“Cristiano Ronaldo made the difference in the first leg and also tonight. We made things difficult for Madrid.”
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