Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
The “whites” from Madrid won the first leg of the semi-final clash in the Champions league against the last year’s winner FC Bayern Munich, on April 23rd. The game winner for Real Madrid CF was scored by the French international, Karim Benzema, who found himself at the end of an absolutely outstanding counter attack that “los merenges” organized in the 19th minute. With just a couple of passes, that started from the middle of the field from Luka Modric and subsequently went through Cristiano Ronaldo and Fabio Coentrao, delivered a perfect ball for Real’s number 9, who was wide open in the 18-yard box of Bayern. With this win Carlo Ancelotti’s team managed to secure itself a minimal lead before entering the 2nd leg of the ½ final this upcoming Tuesday April 29th, which will be played on Alianz Arena in Munich. “Los merenges” are passionately looking to the final where they will have the chance to win the so-long desired 10th UCL title and become the first team to win the most prestigious soccer tournament in the world that many times. FC Bayern Munich on the other hand will have to be a lot more aggressive in the attack in the 2nd leg if they want to get the chance to play on the final in Lisbon later in May.
The Portuguese super-star of Real Madrid CF, Cristiano Ronaldo, started the game after missing 3 games due to a muscle injury in his left thigh. The most expensive player in the world, Gareth Bale, was left on the bench due to some sickness and flu symptoms. He came in in the last 15 minutes of the game. The starting left back for the “white,” Marcelo, was also left on the bench due to injury, and Fabio Coentrao got the starting spot. The Portuguese left back delivered an outstanding performance throughout the whole game and even assisted Benzema for the game winner.
The visitors from Germany started the game with Mario Mandzukic up front, which was preferred to Thomas Muller. Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery were operating on the wings, and Toni Kroos undertook the “playmaker” role for FC Bayern Munich. Bayern’s right back, Philip Lahm, took the role of defensive midfielder for the visitors and played well throughout the whole game.
Even though the German team was the one who had more possession and seemingly more control of the game, Real Madrid CF was extremely organized in every single part of their game. Great defending throughout the whole 90 minutes allowed “the white” to organize multiple phenomenal counter-attacks creating clear goal-scoring opportunities. The game went back and forth in between the two 18-yard boxes, but Real Madrid CF was the team standing on top at the end of the 90 minutes, due to their outstanding organization and exceptionally fast counter attacks, which ended up hurting Bayern Munich once but “deadly” in the 19th minute.
The game in Madrid was won, but “los merenges” have to be prepared for a really tough game in Munich this week and will have to bring even better performance if they want to pave their path to the final in Lisbon.
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