Real have beaten Atletico in each of the past three seasons in the Champions League, including twice in the final in agonising circumstances for the red and white part of Madrid in 2014 and 2016.
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Without any right back available, Simeone could use his other central defender, Sefan Savic, to play in the position.
It was also the Portuguese’s 367th league goal, surpassing England, Tottenham and Chelsea striker Jimmy Greaves, who scored 366 goals between 1957 and 1971. Marcelo has played 2097 minutes in La Liga, 270 in La Copa and 731 minutes in Champions League. On Nov. 19 in what was to be the Estadio Vicente Calderon’s final Madrid derby, Real won 3-0 on a Ronaldo hat trick.
The Bernabeu was left stunned, only for the home fans to be in full voice again when Marcelo cut in from the left and curled a low shot into the far corner.
It was the seventh time this season Madrid had won a game in the last 10 minutes, and although the identity of the match victor was new, it was fitting. We must add that Marcelo doesn’t have any natural substitute in the squad, being a player who has played a lot of games during the season.
While Vardy has hit form at just the right time, reaching 17 goals for the campaign, Albion is enduring a goal drought. “They will try to do us harm from the start by pressing a lot from the beginning”.
Cristiano Ronaldo failed from the penalty spot before Marcelo bailed out Real Madrid with a late goal Saturday to keep alive its bid to end a five-year title drought in the Spanish league.
Madrid led most of the competition but now is level on points with Barcelona.
Worse – much worse – was to come for Jurado early in the second half, though, when the midfielder tried an outside-foot pass from his own half toward Espanyol goalkeeper Diego Lopez. He is +180 to be the first goal scorer of Tuesday’s match.
The former Watford midfielders misplaced pass then teed up Suarez to end a five-game goal drought with a neat finish five minutes into the second period. The promising left-back is in the form of his life at Alaves and Real Madrid are understood to be willing to trigger his € 24 million release clause.
“This stadium, together with Real Madrid’s, is where I have the most fun”, Pique said. “We know it’s going to be hard for both teams”. “Let’s see what happens”.
“We’re not favourites. It’s 50-50, as it always is in the knockout stages, ” said Zidane at his pre-match press conference.
Diego Simeone’s men are 10 points behind Madrid in the Liga table but Torres insists Atletico will be up for the fight, despite heading into the tie as the underdogs. “And we quickly found what we were looking for”.
“Barcelona, Bayern Munich in particular”.
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This is Madrid’s record seventh straight appearance in the competition’s semifinals, and it could become the first team to have a chance to defend its title since Manchester United in 2009.
