The Croatia international has acknowledged that Carlo Ancelotti’s men felt the pressure, but was delighted with their performance in the Clasico
Luka Modric has admitted Real Madrid feared losing Saturday’s La Liga encounter with Barcelona and falling seven points behind in the La Liga title race.
Madrid fell behind to Neymar’s early opener but fought back through a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty, Pepe’s header and a Karim Benzema strike to run out 3-1 winners and close the gap at the top to just a single point.
“We felt the pressure early on in the game because of the importance of the Clasico. We feared losing the game and letting Barcelona go seven points clear in the title race,” Modric told Sportske Novosti.
“But Barcelona also showed in those opening 15 minutes that they will punish you even if you give them very little space. Barcelona are very strong, but they looked powerless because we were great.
“The key was Iker Casillas’ save to deny Lionel Messi. It would have been very hard to get back into the game had Barcelona gone 2-0 up. We showed our mental strength and stability by fighting back.”
Modric added that he felt it was Madrid’s best performance since he joined the club from Tottenham in 2012, before urging his team-mates not to get ahead of themselves with Barca still top of the table.
“This was Madrid’s best performance since I got here. We showed what we can do against top opposition. We showed that nobody can fight us if we make good use of our quality.
“We could have scored even more. But beating a team that hadn’t conceded a single goal until this game 3-1 is a great performance. This win is a big boost for us, but we shouldn’t get carried away. Barcelona are still one point clear.”