Modric: "The staff at Real Madrid told me to shoot more"

Real Madrid’s hero in Granada, Luka Modric, who scored a vital 20-yard goal in the top corner with 5 minutes left to win the match for Madrid (1-2), spoke after the game, with all the attention, naturally, on his super-strike.

And the Croatian midfielder confessed that Zidane and his team had urged him to take more shots before the match. “They told me to shoot more, so today I tried two or three times”, said Modric. It was his last effort though that broke the Granada fans’ hearts, after they’d seen their side fight-back to level at 1-1 after an early Benzema goal.

Modric admitted it had been a tough night for Real Madrid: “We can’t expect to win each game 5-0 or 6-0 [as Madrid have been doing at home since Zidane took over]. It’s not easy playing away from but today we showed character, we had chances. We didn’t score [lots] but the main thing is to keep winning. We can get better in attack and defence, but we’re better than we were before and we can still improve and play better in the next match”, he said optimistically.

As to his own personal form - he was Madrid’s best player tonight - Modric limited himself to saying he was feeling good, following Zidane’s orders. “I don’t like talking about whether this is the best moment of my career or not”, he said.