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Why Real Madrid still miss Cristiano Ronaldo – Modric
Real Madrid midfielder, Luka Modric has said that the club still misses Juventus forward, Cristiano Ronaldo.
According to Modric, it is “almost impossible” for the Champions League holders to replace the Portuguese international at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Ronaldo left Madrid as their all-time highest goalscorer to join the Serie A champions during last summer transfer window.
Speaking ahead of Real Madrid’s Champions League round of 16 second-leg clash with Ajax on Tuesday night, Modric admitted that the La Liga giants still miss Ronaldo, adding that it’s time for the Los Blancos to build a new team without their all-time highest goalscorer.
“The absence of Cristiano is something every team would feel; to find a replacement for Cristiano is almost impossible,” Modric was quoted by Sportmole as saying.
“Given what he did for us and this club, we miss Cristiano. The club wanted the other players to make up for what he did, divided between the strikers and that is not easy. Cristiano scored 50 goals and you can’t find someone today who scores that many.
“Some of us have to take a step forward and, while not scoring 50, what we need is two or three players who score 15, 20, or 10 goals and we don’t have that. That is our biggest problem this year. For example against Barca in the cup we had many chances and when you don’t take advantage your opponent punishes you.
“The club tried, and it seems good, putting faith in other players like Gareth [Bale], [Marco] Asensio, Karim [Benzema]; they brought in Mariano [Diaz], Vinicius is here. [Vinicius] is doing very well for the age he is but sometimes things don’t go how we wanted them to.”