Real Madrid Boss Santiago Solari Hails History-Making Players as Los Blancos Win 7th Club World Cup
Real Madrid manager Santiago Solari has praised his history-making players as Los Blancos claimed their seventh Club World Cup with a resounding 4-1 victory over a spirited Al Ain side.
Goals from Luka Modric, Marcos Llorente and captain Sergio Ramos had put Madrid 3-0 up, before Al Ain's Tsukasa Shiotani headed home a well-deserved goal for the UAE side. A Yahia Nader own goal in injury-time however added gloss to a Madrid win, and sparked wild celebrations at the final whistle.
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With this year's triumph seeing Los Blancos pick up their third successive Club World Cup trophy, recently appointed boss Solari was quick to heap praise on his players.
Speaking to the club's official website, he said: "Being here is down to the players, they won this title. This trophy put the finishing touch to a wonderful start for me and we will try to keep going. Winning 3 Champions League titles and 3 Club World Cups will be hard to top. These players and this club have truly made history.
"This team and this club are used constantly winning. The more we win, the more you know how difficult it is to keep on winning titles. If you travel by plane, the more journeys you do, the more risks you run.
"We got to the semi-finals due to solid attack and seriousness and today it was more of the same. We played a well-rounded game and we got the win. We scored when we needed to."
Having won his first trophy as Real Madrid manager since taking over from Julen Lopetegui in November, Solari admitted he was delighted in adding to Los Blancos' remarkable success in recent seasons.
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The Argentine added: "I am really satisfied and now we are going to make the most of it because I really wanted to win this cup. It is a brilliant tournament and it is now more beautiful than ever before. It was great fun. The next step is to take a holiday because we need it.
"This team never gets tired of winning and gives this tournament the credit it deserves. You can’t forget the titles we’ve won and must keep them in mind. We can’t rest on our laurels, but we shouldn’t stop enjoying it because it's hard to get here.
