Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
The Spanish giants from Madrid took their revenge against Dortmund for the last year’s loss at the Champions league ½ finals. Last year both teams met and furiously “fought” for a spot at the tournament’s final. However, after a 4:1 win in Germany, Dortmund loss only 2:0 in the second leg played in Madrid and, with an aggregate of 4:3, they advanced to the Champions League final where they eventually lost against Bayern Munich. This year fate faced these teams again, but this time in an earlier stage in the tournament. The first leg was played last Wednesday in Madrid, where “los blancos” completely dominated their opponents from Dortmund and ended up winning with 3:0. The usual goal-scorers, Gareth Bale in the 3rd minute, Isco in the 27th, and Cristiano Ronaldo in the 57th were the ones who managed to capitalize some of the multiple chances Real Madrid had throughout the game.
In the last moments before the game, Real Madrid’s central-left midfielder, Angel Di Maria, was left outside of the group for the game due to some minor health problems. Carlo Ancelotti gave the starting spot to, Isco – the incredibly talented young attacking midfielder who ended up delivering a great performance. The visitors from Dortmund were unable to use their “star” player Robert Lewandowski, who was suspended for this game due to the accumulation of too many yellow cards in the previous rounds of the tournament.
The game started as expected, and Real Madrid got their 1st goal scoring chance in the 3rd minute, after a great combination play between Karim Benzema, Daniel Carvajal, and Gareth Bale. After receiving the ball from Benzema within the 18-yard box, Carvajal passed back to the full speed sprinting Bale who ran past the defenders and, with a precise touch, placed the ball in the back of Borussia Dortmund’s net. In the following 15 minutes after the goal, “los merenges” had numerous great goal scoring opportunities, but Dortmund’s goalkeeper was perfect in his reactions and kept his team within the game. Cristiano Ronaldo had two rocket shots from outside of the box in the beginning 15 minutes, but was unable to score. Dortmund’s first chance came in the 23rd minute when Nuri Sahin tried a long-range shot, which didn’t cause any troubles for Iker Casillas. Only 4 minutes after that “los blancos” scored again through Isco Alarcon, who was assisted by Cristiano Ronaldo and after a great 1st touch the young Spaniard was able to place the ball in the bottom left corner after a shot from the edge of the 18-yard box. Borussia Dortmund managed to create a couple of chances before half time but was far from scoring. The second half began in a more dynamic and equivalent level of playing of both teams. Real and Dortmund exchanged some good attacks, creating some great chances. However the home team ended up scoring for the third time in the 57th minute through Cristiano Ronaldo, who was playing his 100th game in the Champions league that night. The best chance for Borussia Dortmund came in the 60th minute when, after a series of rebounds in the 18-yard box of Real Madrid, Henrikh Mkhitaryan found himself just couple yards away from the goal line with the ball at his feet. A great defensive tackle by Pepe prevented a 100% goal for Dortmund. The last minutes of the game were played under the attacking initiative of Dortmund who was desperately trying to get an away goal. Despite their efforts, the game ended with a 3:0 victory for the King’s club. Now Real Madrid has a really solid advantage before the 2nd leg which will be played on Tuesday April 8th in Germany.
What’s Been Said…