Schuster salutes real Real character

Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster paid tribute to his team’s attitude after watching the Spanish champions secure a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday night.

Ruud van Nistelrooy struck 10 minutes after half-time to send the visitors seven points clear at the top of the Primera Liga table, with bitter rivals Barcelona and surprise package Villarreal both playing on Sunday.

“It’s been a great game,” said Schuster. “This is a difficult stadium to play in and I liked the attitude of my men very much.

“Knowing how to play football isn’t enough here. We stood our ground against Athletic, who never make things easy for their rivals.

“That’s how you have to play here, having a good attitude and not only showcasing good quality. You have to work very hard, and that’s exactly what we did.”

The German was particularly pleased with the triumph given the hosts’ form.

“They defeated Valencia last week and they are in very good form,” he said. “Their crowd supports them a lot at their stadium. This is an important victory for us.”

Van Nistelrooy left the field due to injury with eight minutes remaining to be replaced by Guti, but Schuster does not think the problem is serious.

The coach added on www.realmadrid.com: “He stopped playing just before he got injured. His muscle was pulled and he won’t have any problems.”

Asked why Guti had not started, Schuster replied: “Because Julio Baptista and (Wesley) Sneijder had a good game last Sunday. Guti has had some stomach problems this week and wasn’t feeling 100% well.

“We didn’t want him to play from the start. We lined up the same team as last week save for (Miguel) Torres. We have a very important game in three days (against Lazio in Champions League on Tuesday) and we had to take that into account.”