Bruno Cesar sent Sporting ahead early in the second half of the Group F clash, but Cristiano Ronaldo levelled the scores in the penultimate minute of normal time, before Morata headed a 95th-minute victor. This shows what champions are made off! “I am happy because we have to suffer, but we never gave up”, said the Frenchman. “I’m pleased with James, Lucas and Morata”.
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However, the three-time World Player of the Year, who was given a rousing reception by the Sporting fans before kick-off, curled home a free-kick that just had too much power for his Portuguese global teammate Patricio.
Sporting finally got their reward just three minutes into the second-half when Luka Modric and Sergio Ramos failed to clear and the ball fell kindly for Cesar to curl into the far corner. “When you play in the opposition’s half it’s different”.
Praise from Raúl: “He’s a friend and his words are an honour because he’s someone I admire as a person and a player. We saw that tonight, although we’re aware that the performance wasn’t a flawless one”.
“We’ll analyze the aspects that I didn’t like”.
The Sporting president wants you to retire there: “For me it’s an honour that people still have affection for me”. And has since gone on to achieve great things with the club winning the UEFA Champions League twice, the Copa Del Rey, the FIFA Club World Cup and the UEFA Super Cup. “There are no easy games”. “But football is like this and Real Madrid are like this”.
The match was moved to Englands national stadium because of construction work at Spurs home ground and drew 85,011 fans, a club-record home attendance and a record for an English club. Today it was tough but the fans enjoyed themselves. “This is Real Madrid, we know that, at any given time, we can make the difference”.
Wednesday’s biggest upset came at London’s famed Wembley stadium, where Monaco built a 2-0 lead on goals by Bernardo Silva and Thomas Lemar before Toby Alderweireld clawed one back for Tottenham just before half-time. I wasn’t surprised by the Sporting performance, they wanted to put on a good display and make life hard for us. I hope to always be able to offer something at Real Madrid with good performances and goals.
“It is a warning that in the coming games we can’t start so softly because if we do, they can make a fool of us”, Ronaldo told BeIN Sports. “I always want to help out”.
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Their performance paled in comparison to the rampant display of El Clasico rivals Barcelona, who rolled to a 7-0 win over Celtic in their first group game.
