With the win, Real Madrid have sealed their berth into the Champions League semi-finals for a seventh straight season.
Once again, the city of Madrid will be represented in the Champions League semi-finals by its two biggest club. Atletico Madrid did what they did best. They grabbed a goal and shut up shop but such was Leicester City’s ferocity in attack that they ended up nicking one back.
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in an enthralling match to beat Bayern Munich 4-2 at home and move to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the seventh consecutive time. The second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals between the Spanish and Bundesliga leaders was as exciting as it could get.
The match that went on to extra time included a header from Ronaldo in the second half and two goals in added time to take the tie away from the Bavarians. However, it wasn’t a clear cut victory or even a convincing one. More importantly, and somewhat disappointingly for Bayern fans and players, a controversial one veering into the territory of a lucky victory for the defending champions.
Leicester went for broke in the end but could not see through what would have been an incredible comeback. Ronaldo’s hat-trick against Bayern Munich saw Real Madrid through but the match is completely overshadowed by the referee’s blunders.
Marcelo twice cleared off the line for Madrid and Jerome Boateng did the same for Bayern in a thrilling game, which was tilted in Madrid’s favour by Arturo Vidal’s dismissal for two yellow cards, the second of which was harsh.
Ref puts hand in his pocket for the yellow.
Sees it’s Casemiro (would be sent off), stops. #RobarMadrid
— Lucas Resende (@lucasammr) April 18, 2017
Ronaldo put Madrid level at 2-2 on the night in the first period of extra time when he scored his 100th Champions League goal, from a clearly offside position, before he wrapped up his treble and Marco Asensio added a fourth.
https://twitter.com/Ballack/status/854438747827523584
The second and third goal Ronaldo, who made full use of a 10-man Bayern, looked questionable. Where the second goal was without a doubt an offside, the third was a close call when Marcelo played the ball. For the tie breaker in extra time, Sergio Ramos sent a cross in the box to Ronaldo who shot into the net but from an offside position.
Five minutes later, Marcelo showed his sublime skills to dance around the Bayern defence to lay the ball for the Portugal captain. It did not look offside on first sight but video replays suggested it was a tough call to make with Ronaldo probably offside by a hand.
Carlo Ancelotti looked dejected and blamed the referee for Bayern’s defeat at his former club. “The referee probably wasn’t up to the task,” Ancelotti said.
With that, Real Madrid have sealed their berth into the Champions League semi-finals for a seventh straight season. Three times under Jose Mourinho, three times under Carlo Ancelotti and now twice with Zidane. They have been joined by Atletico Madrid who beat Leicester City 2-1 on aggregate after the second leg finished 1-1 in England. On Wednesday night, Juventus take on Barcelona with a 3-0 lead to their name and Monaco host Borussia Dortmund with a 3-2 lead and more importantly three away goals.
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