With the score at 3-0, Juventus will need a miracle when they take on Real Madrid in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie at the Santiago Bernabeu tonight.
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Trailing 3-0 after the first leg in Turin, the Italians still feel they are very much into it. Football can be very unpredictable and yes anything can happen but Juve have probably got to put up an extraterrestrial performance to see them through to the last four of the competition.
Defender Stephan Lichtsteiner then hit a long cross to the back post, again finding Mandzukic for a header past Navas.
Marcelo – the captain in the absence of suspended skipper Sergio Ramos – could not help himself from having a dig at Barca, who surrendered a 4-1 first-leg advantage in a stunning 3-0 collapse against Roma on Tuesday.
“His goal against Juventus was one of the most attractive in football history, a wonderful goal by the best player in the world”.
Zidane withdrew his star player in the 64th minute last weekend, despite the match being delicately poised at 1-1 after Antoine Griezmann’s equaliser.
The game was then turned on its head deep into second-half stoppage time as Real were awarded a penalty when Lucas Vazquez was brought down in the box.
Includes Champions League and European Cup.
Zinedine Zidane believes Cristiano Ronaldo will leave a lasting legacy at Real Madrid like that of Alfredo Di Stefano.
Real sit fourth in La Liga, 15 points behind Barcelona, while a shock defeat to Leganes in the Copa del Rey means they have only one chance of a major trophy.
CRISTIANO RONALDO received a phone call from the former king of Spain after his overhead kick against Juventus.
When the aggregate hit 3-3 with half an hour still to play, the Andalusian’s joke after last week’s game in Turin about getting his suspension out of the way before the semis did not seem so amusing.
That came after lengthy delay in which Gianluigi Buffon saw red for dissent at the decision – the veteran goalkeeper’s first dismissal in his 117th, and likely final, outing in the competition.
Another headed goal by Mandzukic after 37 minutes really had Los Merengues on the ropes, the Croatian only the second Bianconeri player to score a brace versus Madrid, the other being club legend Alessandro Del Piero in 2008.
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Elsewhere in Europe, Bayern Munich progressed to the semi-final after a 0-0 draw with Sevilla. It was his header that Lucas was about to control when Benatia was adjudged to have fouled the Madrid man six yards from goal.
