‘Nobody expects Malmo to beat Madrid’

Malmo captain Markus Rosenberg admits his side are enormous underdogs as they host Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Los Blancos will play in Sweden on Wednesday and the skipper has been interviewed ahead of the encounter by AS, reflecting on the size of the task at hand.

“It will be a fantastic match. It’s our second year in the Champions League. We learned a lot last year and I think we had a great game here against Atletico Madrid,” Rosenberg began.

“Now comes an even better team, Real Madrid, so it will be very difficult.

“I scored against Madrid in the Champions League with Werder Bremen. They’re a great rival. To be honest, nobody thinks Madrid won’t win this game, and they have Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best in the world.”

Madrid go into the game with a host of injuries and Rosenberg admitted that is a good thing as far as his team’s chances are concerned.

“It’s good news for us. The more players Madrid are missing, the better,” he remarked.

“The replacements have quality but if Sergio Ramos is rested, even better. It’s possible they are thinking about the derby.

“For Malmo to take a point we need to be 100% and catch Madrid on a bad day. If not, we don’t have a chance.

“People are right to consider Malmo [the Cinderella of the group]. The Swedish League isn’t the strongest and before Malmo, Sweden hadn’t had a Champions League team in 15 years.

“Normally we wouldn’t get any points at the group stage. Last year we got three. We’ve gained in experience but we can’t compete economically with our three rivals, Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Shakhtar Donetsk.”

Tags Malmo Markus Rosenburg
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