Bender, Dortmund focused on Real

24 October 2012 01:40

Midfielder Sven Bender has claimed Borussia Dortmund have moved on from their derby loss and are focused on their clash with Real Madrid.

Dortmund lost 2-1 at home against Schalke on Saturday but Bender has claimed the reigning Bundesliga champions have had no time to wallow in that result.

Next up is Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League and Bender knows Dortmund must find a way to exploit the Spanish club's lack of top-line full-backs, in the hope of moving to the top of Group D.

"We don't have the time to think about our last game in the Bundesliga," Bender said.

"We know we did a lot of things wrong but we proved we can play better football.

"We are professionals so we have to forget those defeats.

"We focused pretty quickly on the game against Real Madrid.

"That is the only thing we think about now."

Real Madrid have travelled to Germany without full-backs Alvaro Arbeloa, Fabio Coentrao and Marcelo, who are all injured, but head coach Jose Mourinho has refused to use that as an excuse.

"This game against Dortmund will be tough but not because we are missing a few players," Mourinho said.

"I don't like talking about players that are not available.

"We have a good enough team to play tomorrow and it will be difficult because of the quality of the opponents we are facing."

Mourinho's counterpart Jurgen Klopp has reminded his side that despite Madrid's injury problems in defence, the Spanish team could still overwhelm Dortmund with their attacking players.

"We have to work extremely hard like we did against Manchester City (where we claimed a 1-1 draw)," Klopp said.

"We also have to be wary about some of Real's key players.

"When you play against them, you have to watch out for players like Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo, (Angel) Di Maria, (Karim) Benzema and (Gonzalo) Higuain.

"There is high quality all around.

"We want to take the sting out of the match, like we did against City, and play with that same attitude against Real Madrid.

"We have to give everything we have."