Luka Modric has hit out at Real Madrid's turgid display as they fell to defeat at Borussia Dortmund, claiming that they "never learn" from poor performances
Dortmund's 'keeper Roman Weidenfeller saves a penalty from Angel Di Maria on Tuesday. Pic/Imagelibrary/EPA
Dortmund: Luka Modric has hit out at Real Madrid's turgid display as they fell to defeat at Borussia Dortmund, claiming that they "never learn" from poor performances.
Dortmund's 'keeper Roman Weidenfeller saves a penalty from Angel Di Maria on Tuesday. Pic/Imagelibrary/EPA
The Blancos, who left Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench due to fitness fears, were beaten 0-2 by an injury-depleted Schwarzgelben side at Signal Iduna Park — but the Spanish giants still progressed to the final four of the Champions League 3-2 on aggregate.
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With a 3-0 first-leg advantage, Madrid were rocking at half-time as Marco Reus' double reduced the aggregate score to 3-2 in a fervent atmosphere at Signal Iduna Park on Tuesday.
Both goals came after Angel Di Maria had seen a penalty saved by Roman Weidenfeller, the Argentinian losing his footing on the wet surface as he went to strike the ball.
Despite booking their spot in the next round, Modric was at a loss to explain the team's poor performance and says qualification is bittersweet because of the nature of of their defeat in Dortmund.
"I don't know what happened," the Croatian midfielder told reporters. "It may be that we were complacent because we won 3-0 and we started thinking it would be easy. I don't know.
"We need to learn from this match. We always say we need to learn but we never do.
"Of course we're happy we've reached the semi-finals but we aren't happy with how we've played, especially in the first-half," he said.
"We can't allow what happened in the first-half. But we improved and we are in the semi-final."
Madrid will now appear in their fourth consecutive Champions semi-final, but they have lost all three of their previous last-four ties.