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Miron Muslic: Our focus is now on the first round of the cup
The Royal Blues welcomed Real Madrid to the VELTINS-Arena on Sunday (16/8), as part of the celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the stadium. Despite a 3-0 defeat, head coach Miron Music was pleased with the performance in their final pre-season friendly. “I made clear before the game that we would need to dig deep and push our limits. You can develop and grow as a team in this respect as well, which is exactly what we did.”
For Muslic, the result of the game wasn’t the priority, in the midst of the 25th-anniversary celebrations. “We’re able to put the match in perspective. Against Real Madrid, we came up against the very best in European football and had some very impressive moments,” he said. The 62,136 fans in attendance cheered on their side throughout the game, such as when Timo Becker cut off Vinicius Junior’s attempted run through.
Muslic also praised the manner in which the Royal Blues held their ground against the individual quality in Real’s squad. “We defended against everything right until the end and cleared several promising chances for Real in one-on-ones,” Muslic said. “Those are Schalke principles; that’s our motto: ‘Defend until the end.’ We were aggressive going forward and looked to win the ball back high up the pitch. Those are all characteristics that set us apart.”
We want to play as a team, put in the best-possible performance and, of course, progress to the next round.
Schalke were unable to defend against everything that Real threw at them, with Kylian Mbappé, Dean Huijsen and Carlos Espi scoring in a 3-0 win for the visitors. “Real Madrid have possibly the best squad of any club in the world,” Muslic said. “It’s great that we’ve been able to experience that first-hand.” The style of play that sets the Spaniards apart is ruthless.
Real head coach José Mourinho also praised Schalke for their performance, Muslic shared. The two head coaches met in his office after the game. “He went out of his way to make time for us, which really speaks volumes about his greatness and his character.”
Muslic is now looking ahead to the team’s upcoming DFB-Pokal game at Hallescher FC on Monday (24/8). “Our focus is now on the first round of the cup. We want to play as a team, put in the best-possible performance and, of course, progress to the next round.”
