Real Madrid came back from 2-0 down against Wolfsburg in the first leg to win 3-2 on aggregate thanks to a hat-trick from Cristiano Ronaldo at the Bernabeu on Tuesday night. Two early goals in the first half followed by a free-kick in the second were enough for the Blancos to move to the semi-finals.
Squads
Real Madrid: Navas, Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo, Casemiro, Kroos, Modric, Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema
Wolfsburg: Benaglio, Vieirinha, Naldo, Dante, Rodriguez, Gustavo, Guilavogui, Draxler, Henrique, Arnold, Schürrle
Ronaldo wipes out Madrid’s deficit within 17 minutes
All Wolfsburg needed to do was get an away goal that would have forced Real Madrid into a scenario where they would have had to score four goals to get a result. Instead the Bundesliga side opted to sit back in their own half and invited pressure upon themselves.
Whenever Wolfsburg did get the ball back, Los Blancos quickly won it back and attacked with increasing intent as the first 15 minutes played out. And right on the 15-minute mark, Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring thanks to some terrible defending from Wolfsburg.
Dani Carvajal made a lung-busting run to get to a loose ball and sent in a low cross that seemed to deflect off Arnold and into the path of Ronaldo at the far port. The Portuguese forward simply had to tap the ball into the back of the net to spark the comeback.
Even before Wolfsburg could catch their breath and reorganize, the Spanish side struck again. After they were awarded a corner kick, Toni Kroos crossed the ball into the box with Cristiano Ronaldo first to the ball near the corner of the six-yard box. He simply glanced a header goalward and Wolfsburg had not stationed a defender at the far post as the ball went past a hapless Benaglio and into the bottom corner.
Wolfsburg hang on till half-time
Wolfsburg suffered another blow at the half-hour mark when Julian Draxler was unable to continue after twisting his ankle. He was immediately substituted and replaced by Max Kruse with Andre Schurrle moving to the left wing while Bruno Henrique played on the right in attack.
The switch seemed to work for a while as Wolfsburg managed to squeeze a few shots in a period of domination. Henrique had a chance to score before Ramos and Marcelo came in his way to concede a corner kick. Schurrle also had a chance to grab an away goal before Carvajal ensured it went out for another corner kick which they did not make good use of.
But in spite of the two early goals, Madrid failed to impose themselves in the latter stages of the half
Ronaldo completes his hat-trick
The second half saw Real Madrid dominate possession in the early stages as Wolfsburg barely had a chance to get out of their own half. Ronaldo, looking for his hat-trick, had a chance to do so on a free-kick but saw it deflected off the wall for a corner.
Soon after, Josuha Guilavogui almost put the ball into his own net after he tried to get in the way of a Modric cross. Benzema had found the Croatian midfielder make a run on the right and his cross would have been deflected in if not for the alert Benaglio at the near post.
Sergio Ramos then looked to have scored the all-important goal to give Zidane’s side a 3-2 lead on aggregate when his header from a corner kick came off the post and seemed to cross the goal line before Benaglio held on to it. But the assistant referee near the goal refused to award the goal and replays showed the ball did not cross the line.
Real were handed another opportunity when Luiz Gustavo brought down Modric to give the home side a free-kick. Although it was in Gareth Bale territory, Cristiano Ronaldo took it and scored his 16th goal of the European campaign to make it 3-0. Although his free-kick was directed at the wall, it squeezed through Guilavogui and Naldo as Benaglio’s dive went in vain.
Benaglio was repeatedly let down by the defence and the scoreline could easily have been 5-0 by the 85th minute had he not been forced into making a couple of fine saves. The first one was off a Karim Benzema effort that was palmed away while the second saw substitute Jese also try his luck from inside the box which was blocked. The 90th minute also saw Bale sent through on goal before the Swiss goalkeeper came to the rescue again.
Madrid eventually held on in spite of three minutes of stoppage time that actually saw four minutes. This will be Madrid’s sixth consecutive semi-final appearance since 2011.
Manchester City 1-0 PSG (3-2 on aggregate)
With PSG needing goals due to City’s two away goals, Laurent Blanc initially started with a three-man defence in a 3-5-2 formation. But as the game wore on with the Ligue 1 side really not enforcing themselves, he reverted to a back four after David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero exposed them time and again in the final third.
Manchester City had the best chance of the first half when Sergio Aguero won a penalty after he was brought down in the box by goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. The referee pointed to the spot but only produced a yellow card as Aguero was moving away from goal and there was a defender to assist in case Aguero had got around Trapp.
Unfortunately, Aguero stepped up and put the penalty wide of the right post with Trapp even guessing the right direction. But it was a half of missed opportunities as neither side looked like grabbing a goal.
The second half saw PSG attack with more intent with Zlatan Ibrahimovic forcing Joe Hart into a fine save from a free-kick. But it was City who eventually took the lead through Kevin De Bruyne.
The Belgian midfielder acted quickly on a layoff and took a shot from outside the box that squeezed in between the post and the goalkeeper. Trapp went the right way but reacted too late to make the save to give City a 3-2 lead on aggregate with 15 minutes to go.
The goal was enough for City to win the tie 3-2 on aggregate as they reached the Champions League semi-final stage for the first time in the club’s history.
