Sid Lowe’s match report
Full-time: Real 1-3 Juventus (agg: 4-3)
Real have escaped into the semi-finals! Juventus hit three goals to cancel out the first-leg score and move to the brink of a sensational, historic triumph. But then Michael Oliver awarded a penalty following an untidy tackle by Benatia - but was it a foul? - and Ronaldo seized his moment. This tie will be talked about - argued about - for years.
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90+9 min: Ronaldo gets a booking. And apparently several Italian journalists have been ejected from the Bernabeu press box after complaining about the remarkable late twist to this tie!
GOAL! Real 1-3 Juve (Agg: 4-3) (Ronaldo pen 90+7)
Ronaldo, looking nerveless, steps up and guides a spotkick beyond Szczesny and into the top corner. Then he runs off and undresses with joy. Real are saved! Juve are disgusted.
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Juve substitution: Szczesny on, Higuain off.
90+2 min: It could be a while before the penalty gets taken. Juve have to introduce a goalkeeper - Szczesny - and the ref has to disperse players who are continuing to rail against his decision. The more replays that are shown, the less clear the penalty decision becomes. Benatia puts his hands momentarily on the Real player’s back and wrap his leg around him to try to get at the ball - but does he apply any force, or enough to justify the player’s fall? It’s a tough decision for the ref. I’d have waved away the penalty claims on the basis of an overall interpretation of justice in the game’s context.
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Buffon sent off!
Michael Oliver has made a hugely contentious decision here! he showed a straight red card to Juve’s goalkeeper, who ran towards him to protest at the penalty decision, which was given against Benatia.
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PENALTY TO REAL!
Vazquez went down after being pushed from behind when Ronaldo nodded the ball back to him in front of goal
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90 min: Benatia makes two rash challenges on half-way, almost forcing the ref to issue a yellow card. Ramos, by the way, is now sitting in the Real dugout minus his hat. Are they going to slip in to a jersey and try to sneak him on? That might work if they hadn’t made all their substitutes already. OK, it wouldn’t work.
89 min: Real are in charge in terms of territory now, but Juve are defending reasonably comfortably. They love this. And they know that if they can nick one more goal on the counter, Real will need to score twice...
88 min: Marcelo loops a useless cross into the box. Ronaldo tries to make something of it but jumps and falls to the ground like an uncoordinated pogo dancer. It’s as if last week never happened.
87 min: Carvajal curls a cross in from the right, much like Lichtsteiner’s delivery to Mandzukic in the first half. But Ronaldo is no Mandzukic tonight - he donks his header over the bar.
86 min: Pjanic takes the freekick quickly and tries to play in Mandzukic. but the Croat wasn’t expecting that move.
86 min: Vallejo booked for clattering into Higuain. Freekick to Juve from nearly 30 yards, dead centre. Pjanic has scored from here before ...
84 min: This is taut. Every challenge is intensely contested and both sides are thinking twice about taking risks that could prove fatal.
82 min: Juve relieve the pressure by finding Costa, who sprints past Marcelo before being hacked down by the Brazilian. An obvious yellow card.
80 min: The home crowd are becoming a little more buoyant, in response to a spell of pressure rom their team. Varane goes close when the ball breaks to him in the box and he sends a sidefooter just wide of the target.
79 min: Isco lets fly from 20 yards. Benatia tries to block but his deflection makes matters more difficult for Buffon, who springs to his right and touches the ball around the post!
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78 min: Marcelo hares down the left but his cross is easily cleared at the near post by Benatia.
77 min: Ronaldo heads away Pjanic’s corner.
76 min: Sandro pumps the ball into the Real box rom the left. Real hastily whack it away. But it soon comes back and Juve have a corner ...
Real substitution: Kovacic on, Modric off after he, too, had a quiet game.
74 min: Ronaldo scurries into the Juve box from the left wing. There is a forest of bodies in front of him but he essays a shot - and it’s deflected just wide.
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72 min: Pjanic juggles with the ball in the centre circle before spinning away and setting up another attack. But Real win the ball back and start a counter, which Costa brings to an abrupt end by lunging at Asensio. That’s a deserved yellow card.
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70 min: There is a lull, as both team consider their next moves. Question: if Juventus win this, does Ronaldo’s goal in the first leg become less great?
69 min: To answer a question posed by several of you: if the scores remain the same at 90 minutes, this tie will proceed to extra-time, and potentially a penalty shootout. You’d have to fancy the team with Buffon if it goes that far.
68 min: Freekick to Real in a dangerous position, a couple of yards outside the area and to the right. Ronaldo allows Asensio to do the honours and the younger man curls a shot several yards over the bar.
65 min: Alex Sandro booked
62 min: Real don’t seem to know quite what to do. Juve, in contrast, look very measured: they haven’t had to work up a storm to get back into this tie. Rather they have been controlled, attacking only at the right times and to devastating effect.
61 min: The camera keeps picking out Ramos, who is sitting in the posh seats with a smart hat. Real are almost visibly pining for him on the pitch.
GOAL! Real 0-3 Juve (agg: 3-3) (Matuidi 59)
Unbelievable! Costa curled in a cross from the left. It should have been easy pickings for Navas but the goalkeeper dropped it at the feet of Matuidi, who didn’t pause to say thank you: he just flipped the ball into the net and wheeled away to celebrate with ecstatic team-mates! This is historic!
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59 min: Modric loses possession in his own half. Matuidi begins a Juve attack, which culminates with Higuain having a shot on the swivel from 20 yards. It lacks power but still demands an awkward save from Navas.
57 min: After a spell of slow possession lay by Real, Vazquez bursts own the right wing and picks out Ronaldo with a low pass. Ronaldo fires off a low shot from the edge of the area. Buffon gets down to save. It has, by the way, been seven years since since Real failed to score at home in a European match.
55 min: A sloppy pass by Matuidi gives the ball to Real, who have a chance to break forward. But they do not commit many players to the attack, such is their wariness. The move peters out.
54 min: Carvajal goes down holding his nose, trying to fool the referee into believing he’s been elbowed in the gob by Mandzukic, who, in reality, merely brushed against him with a fair shoulder challenge. The referee awards a freekick. Even that seems severe.
53 min: Ronaldo tries to take charge of matters all by himself. He goes on a run that that takes him into the Juve box. He nudges the ball past the last defender and goes around him to collect it. but Chiellini gets a cross to block the shot at the expense of a corner.
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51 min: The crowd are becoming increasingly edgy - because Real’s players appear to be. They keep giving the ball away. “I’m stuck in an airport that must be the only place in the world not showing this game, Paul” frets Justin Kavanagh. “If Juventus do pull off The Miracle in Madrid, it is your solemn duty to describe the look on Ronaldo’s puss as he walks off. There will be a wibbly lower lip, at least!” I’m assuming you’re in Madrid airport, right?
48 min: Costa collects a pass to feet and dart past Marcelo, who dived in. He bears down on the box and then decides to unload with a left-footer from 20 yards. But he skies it.
47 min: Asesnsio skips down the left and plays in Vazquez, who ties to glide past Chiellini in the box. But Juve’s defence stands firm. “Looking at this potential comeback, I can’t help but think of Marca’s gleeful front page from this morning, with both Barca and Pep labelled as ‘total failures’,” notes Shaun Wilkinson. “What do you think they are going to go with tomorrow if Juve get one more?” Traffic news?
46 min: Zidane is not about to tolerate what happened in the first half. He’s made two changes for the second: Vazquez and Asensio on, Bale and Casemiro off. The first half completely passed Bale by and he’s not being given a chance to make amends.
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Here are Real’s biggest ever home defeats in Europe’s premier competition. Juve are going to have to inflict a record beating:
2-4 v Bayern Munich in 2000.
1-3 v Spartak Moscow in 1991
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Half-time: Real 0-2 Juve (agg: 3-2)
At half-time Juve are two-thirds of the way to an outlandish comeback! They have not dominated in the way that Roma did against Barcelona last night but they have played smart and taken their chances emphatically. Mandzukic is tormenting Real’s defenders in the air and will fancy his chances of bagging a hat-trick: the biggest question, probably, is whether Juve can stop Real from scoring. We have ourselves a bona fide cliffhanger!
45 +1 min: Ronaldo slips out on the left wing. Chiellini spots an opportunity to nick the ball but Ronaldo puts his body in front of it and wins a freekick. Kross curls it in. Varane jumps to get a header to it from seven yards .. and the ball canons back off the crossbar!
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44 min: Isco leads a break forward. after scampering for 40 yards he nips a pass in to Ronaldo at the left-hand corner of the Juve box. Ronaldo shakes and shimmies but that don’t impress Benatia much: the Moroccan steps in and relives the Portuguese of the ball. He’ll be aiming to reprise that at this summers World Cup.
Still reckon Real will score. For all the talk of Juve's defence - Barca & Real both scored 3 against them this season. Spurs got 3 across the two legs also
— Paul Little (@little_football) April 11, 2018
42 min: Juve rumble forward again. Khedira tries to thread a cute pass through to Mandzukic, but Varane reads it and intercepts well. “Wonder how much this game will be decided by subtitutes,” parps Alexander Scrutton. “While Juventus do not really have much firepower of the bench other than maybe Cuadrado, Madrid have got players such as Asensio, Vazquez and Benzema. Could they decide the game?” Yes, they could. But will they? At the moment the key from a Real viewpoint is that Ramos is missing: without him Real’s defence look extremely fragile in the air, certainly no match for Mandzukic.
39 min: Marcelo sends a cross over from the left but he’s put too much power on it and it rolls out for a throw-in on the far side. By the way, I should probably point out that Bale has exerted very little influence on proceedings so far. He’s not a first-choice starter at Real any more and he’s not exactly taking the chance to re-establish himself here. So far.
GOAL! Real 0-2 Juve (Agg: 3-2) (Mandzukic 37)
It’s on! And what a routine goal it was for such an extraordinary scenario. Lichtsteiner curled over a cross from the right and Mandzukic leapt above Carvajal at the far post and nodded into the net from six yards!
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35 min: Lichtsteiner booked for pulling down Ronaldo as the forward to roll away from him and go on a run.
34 min: As the Juve defence stops and appeals for offside, Isco ruins on to a pass from Kroos and finds himself one-on-one with Buffon .... and the goalkeeper makes a splendid save!
33 min: Isco lifts a shot over the bar from 12 yards. Another goal for Juve would make this very interesting indeed, but Real are looking the more likely scorers now.
32 min: Casemiro wins possession in midfield and threads a nice low pass to Isco inside the area. Isco thinks about trying to dribble around Benatia but then knocks the ball back to Kroos at the edge of the area. The German’s shot is blocked by Chiellini.
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30 min: Mandzukic booked for clipping Carvajal. It looked clumsy rather than a malicious reprisal for the Spaniard’s tackle on him a couple of minutes ago. Kroos floats in the freekick from the right. It’s headed out to the left, where Marcelo arrives and tries to smash a half-volley into the top corner, missing by a couple of feet.
28 min: Juve are pressing vigorously but Real are slick enough to be able to play their way out. This is becoming more comparable to the City-Liverpool game than Roma-Barça.
25 min: The tempo has dropped a tad because Real are curbing Juve’s vivacity. Having said that, Pjanic has just won the ball back in midfield to instigate another counter-attack. But Real regroup and snuff it out pronto. “Swap Barça for Real and Roma for Juve and just copy & paste from last night’s mbm,” suggests Val. But that would entail making Messi and Ronaldo synonymous, thus triggering a war.
22 min: Mandzukic goes down clutching his ankle after being caught late by Carvajal, who cops a yellow card from Michael Oliver.
19 min: Ronaldo draws a foul from Benatia to five Real a freekick mid-way inside the Juve half. The home team have established a measure of control after Juve early blitz, but how they’d like to capitalise on that and score.
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18 min: “Football,” says Moustafa Meligy via email. Thanks Moustafa, good point.
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Juve substitution: Lichtsteiner on, De Sciglio off. Presumably that change is due to injury, although there was no obvious sign that De Sciglio was struggling, apart from wounded pride after Ronaldo nutmegged him in the opening seconds.
17 min: Pjanic booked for pulling back Isco to abort a Real counter-attack.
16 min: A Juve corner is flicked on by Khedira at the front post. It falls to the feet of Mandzukic, three yards out! But the striker was taken by surprise and can’t adjust his feet quickly enough to do anything other than turn it goalwards softly, and straight at Navas.
14 min: Kroos zips a pass in to Ronaldo at the left-hand corner of the box. Ronaldo ducks and twists to fool two defenders and create just enough chance for a shot, which he bangs in low and hard. Buffon gets down to save. Isco nudges the rebound into the net - but he was fractionally offside. Hats off the linesman for keeping up: this game is unfolding at a breathless pace.
12 min: Chiellini makes a super last-ditch intervention to deprive Isco of the chance of tapping the ball into the net from close range after another sweeping Real attack.
10 min: Ronaldo backheels a pass to Modric, who does a stepover in the box before flipping it on to Bale. The Welshman, arriving at speed, takes a touch before trying to poke it past Buffon, who saves well with his feet. Bale tries to convert the rebound with a backheel lob - naturellement - but it hits the sidenetting. Real have woken up!
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9 min: Bale goes on a gallop for the first time, charging down the right. He chops back on to his left foot and sends a high ball to the far side of the box, where Ronaldo retrieves it. He unloads a shot from 18 yards but it’s blocked.
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8 min: Costa pounces on a mistake by Varane and charges down the right wing again. He sends over a low cross that Navas palms towards Higuain, who slides and tries to send it goalward. but he can’t lift it above the recovering keeper.
6 min: Costa releases De Sciglio again. The cross is badly over-hit this time. But Juve are wreaking havoc down the right, where Marcelo is regularly outnumbered. Zidane will have to sort that out if the players don’t do something about it themselves.
5 min: De Sciglio curls another vicious cross in from the right. But this one is a tad too long for Mandzukic.
3 min: Juve storm forward again. Real are rattled! But they recover enough wherewithal to scramble the ball away. But the way Juve have started suggests they’ll be banging on the door again in no time.
GOAL! Real 0-1 Juve (agg: 3-1) (Mandzukic 2)
Well, well, well! That’s a lovely goal and a dream start for Juve! Costa created it with a dash down the right and a pass to Khedira, who floated a dainty cross to the back post. Mandzukic jumped to guide an expert header into the net from five yards. Game on!?
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1 min: Real get the game going. And Ronaldo’s first touch is a nutmeg on De Sciglio. He’s merciless.
While Real are wearing their familiar great white kit, Juve are clad in all yellow. It’s like watching Leeds home v Leeds away.
The teams enter the arena and see a giant banner of a shark being held aloft by Real fans. Th slogan emblazoned above it? “Great White”. And there was Benjamin Mendy lamenting the elimination of the “shark team”.
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10 managers* have won the European Cup/Champions League two years in succession. No one has done it three years in a row (though Bob Paisley and Carlo Ancelotti do have a trio of victories to their name). Zinédine Zidane is aiming to make history. And still there is legitimate debate as to whether he’s a very good manager, let alone a great one.
(* apart from Zidane, they are Brian Clough, Bob Paisley, Dettmar Cramer, Stefan Kovacs, Arrigo Sacchi, Bela Guttman, Heleno Herrera, Luis Carniglia and José Villalonga, although Harry Kane is claiming to have been the decisive influence over Real Madrid’s victories in 1956 and 57)
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Teams:
Vallejo comes in for the suspended Sergio Ramos, while Gareth Bale gets a start ahead of Benzema. Ronaldo apparently didn’t fancy being rested. as for Juve, with Dybala out because of last weeks red card, Mandzukic comes in.
Real: Navas; Carvajal, Varane, Vallejo, Marcelo; Kroos, Casemiro, Modric, Isco; Ronaldo, Bale
Subs: Casilla, Benzema, Hernandez, Vazquez, Llorente, Asensio, Kovacic
Juventus: Buffon; De Sciglio, Benatia, Chiellini, Alex Sandro; Khedira, Pjanic, Matuidi; Costa, Higuain, Mandzukic
Subs: Szczesny, Cuadrado, Marchisio, Asamoah, Rugani, Lichtsteiner, Stuaro
Referee: M Oliver (Northumberland)
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Preamble
Hello and welcome. Juventus got some compatriots do their team-talk for them last night, but will Roma’s performance inspire them today to what would be an even more extraordinary comeback than the one produced by Eusebio Di Franceso’s men against Barcelona? Real Madrid may be 15 points behind their Catalan chums in the Spanish league but they have looked a more complete side in recent months, at least in the Champions League. What is more, unlike Barça, Real are at home in the second leg. Juventus have twice been crowned kings of Europe, and have been runners-up twice in the last three years, but overturning a three-goal deficit at the Bernabeu today will probably require a performance to surpass any the club has previously produced.
Real, then, are a step away from an eighth Champions League semi-final in a row. They are already favourites to win the tournament this year, which would be a fourth coronation in five seasons – which would be quite ridiculous bearing in mind that the Champions League is Europe’s most open league. And how satisfying it would be for Cristiano Ronaldo, in particular, if Real completed their progress to the last four today: the best player in the world practically ensured Real’s progress with that outrageous overhead kick in Turin, a week before Lionel Messi went to Italy and failed to find a way of his hotel room. Ronaldo turned 33 years old on February 5 - in the 10 matches he has played since then, he has scored 20 goals.
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