Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder has stated that they can win the UEFA Champions League next season. In an interview to the Madrid based Spanish sports daily Marca, the Dutch international has enthused that the side is improving and next season they shall certainly challenge for the European crown.

For the fourth successive year this season, Real Madrid failed to get past the last 16 hurdle in Europe’s top tier club competition. They failed to beat Italian side AS Roma over the two legs this time around and crashed out of the competition.

But Sneijder says that there were a number of reasons for their collapse to the Romans and is confident that they can temper those weaknesses next season and win the trophy that they haven’t since 2002.

Wesley Sneijder told Marca:

“For me, this has been a good season. Next year we can win the Champions League. We have the team to do that. We went through bad moments but we have made a good campaign.

“Roma are a good team, and they showed that against us. It was a shame that we missed so many players. It happened during a bad moment, we missed Ruud, Ramos, myself... we missed important people and that was noticeable..."

Real Madrid won their second successive La Liga crown this season and are set to make a whole host of changes to their squad in the summer to make them more competitive for a European conquest next season. A number of new faces, including defenders and central midfielders, are expected to be ushered into the Madrid unit before the start of next season’s campaign.