The first two teams through to the quarter finals of this season's Champions League are Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, although the two progressed in very differing circumstances. Dortmund cruised past Shakhtar Donetsk 3-0 (5-2 agg) in Germany, although the Ukrainians did have a lot of good opportunities. But Real's progression was largely helped by a Turkish referee who changed the match at Old Trafford with a surprise red card.
The hype for the second leg at Old Trafford was second to none with all the side stories, Ryan Giggs' 1000th senior appearance for United, Cristiano Ronaldo's comeback to Old Trafford and then the battle between Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho.
The first half saw Ronaldo get booed by the United fans and looked rather uninspiring. Giggs took centre stage on his momentous achievement by pulling out all the skills and putting in a great shift going forwards and back. Neither team could really get a stronghold in the half and after the first five to ten minutes, United were the more threatening and came closest to scoring with Nemanja Vidic's header from a corner cannoning off the post.
It was advantage United at half time as 0-0 would put the hosts through on the away goal and Real Madrid hadn't really troubled David De Gea. The dynamics would slightly change three minutes into the second half when Nani picked up a loose ball inside the left hand side of the box. He flashed the ball across the six yard box, Danny Welbeck got the slightest of touches which caught Sergio Ramos off guard. The ball poked off of Ramos' foot and past Diego Lopez.
This gave United the clear advantage but it didn't really alter anything as Real Madrid still only needed a goal to still be in the tie and take it in to extra time. The Spaniards were beginning to find an onslaught on the United goal with numerous corners coming in. But Real Madrid were then able to consolidate this pressure just 11-minutes in to the second half when Nani looked to try and control the ball with his foot in air but ended up colliding with Alvaro Arbeloa's abdomen. Both of the players ended up on the floor and in pain and everyone expected to see a Madrid free-kick and possibly a yellow card for the high foot. Once Nani had got up, a couple of minutes after the challenge, the referee, Cuneyt Cakir, shockingly brandished a red card and United were somehow down to ten men.
This changed the whole complexion of the game, even though Madrid had been in the ascendency United were looking equally as capable at clearing their lines. Substitute Luka Modric found some space twenty yards from goal and he smashed an effort which hit the post and found its way in to the net to give Madrid the equaliser just ten minutes after the red card, 66-minutes.
The tie had completely changed just three minutes later and United were crushed when Mesut Ozil and Gonzalo Higuain linked up well and the Argentine flashed the ball across goal where, who else, but Ronaldo would be on hand to slide the ball home and virtually knock his former, but beloved, side out. Respectfully, Ronaldo refused to celebrate his 40th goal of the season which put United out.
To their credit, United didn't completely buckle at 2-1 and with 20-minutes remaining. Substitute Wayne Rooney blazed a glorious opportunity over the bar from seven yards and Diego Lopez pulled off some fantastic saves from point blank range to keep United at bay. De Gea also produced a couple of fine saves from Ronaldo to keep the score at 2-1 but it is Real Madrid who go through, 3-2 on aggregate.
Dortmund's victory over Shakhtar was much less controversial but every bit just as action packed. The game was end to end throughout and the visitors will be bewildered at how they didn't score inside the Westfalen Stadium. The first leg finished 2-2 which gave Dortmund the advantage on the away goal ruling.
The deadlock was broken just after the half hour mark when Felipe Santana found a bullet header from a corner that beat the man on the post. The tie then looked all but over six minutes later when Robert Lewandowski's ball across goal was poked home by Mario Gotze for his second of the competition.
The icing on the cake came just before the hour mark when Ilkay Gundogan's powerful shot was spilt by Andriy Pyatov and Jakub Blaszczykowski jumped at the chance to round the keeper and tap home Dortmund's third to win the tie 5-2 on aggregate.
No comments:
Post a Comment