Could Real Madrid get their hands on an eleventh CL title? (Pic: Pinterest.com)
Real Madrid welcome former manager Josè Manuel Pellegrini and Manchester City to the Estadio Santiago Bernabèu for the second leg of this year's UEFA Champions League semifinal. Both sides played out a stalemate at the Etihad stadium as marksman Cristiano Ronaldo sat out the tie nursing a thigh strain. Karim Benzema only lasted the first half as he too had a muscle strain. Zidane will be hoping both of his stars are fit come Wednesday the 4th of May.
Los Blancos had chances in the second half to grab an away goal in that game, but were foiled by the virtually unbeatable Joe Hart. The English shot stopper made two really outstanding saves; one to deny Casemiro with a trailing left foot and the other in an unorthodox fashion to keep out Pepe from barely five yards out. Substitute Jesè Rodriguez hit the top of the bar with a looping header. Hosts Manchester City only pulled out one notable save out of Keylor Navas in the dying embers of the game as Zidane's side did all they could to prevent losing in the first leg.
Real will have much encouragement to go all the way into the final as they boast a very impressive winning streak at the Bernabèu in this season's edition (5 wins out of 5). They also come into this encounter on the back of five straight clean sheets on home soil. This really impressive record also comes with a daunting tally of 18 goals scored in those five games. Talk about attacking prowess. Most notably in this tie is the massive support the Madridistas show for their side as we saw against German minnows VFL Wolfsburg. Los Merengues will be immensely boosted by the returns of CR7 and Karim Benzema and also having a fully fit squad who literally give their all each time being called upon.
Every winning side has to have a certain style that gives them results and this particular crop of players have one. It is one hinged on high energy levels evident in chasing back to retrieve possession and a lethal counter attack when on the break.
Can these two help fire Real Madrid to the title? (Pic: FourFourtwo)
This pattern of play is brought about by the technical prowess of World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane who has tweaked nearly to perfection the mechanics of this well-oiled machine known as Real Madrid. Will they be able to go all the way? We'll just have to wait and see. The objective for President Florentino Perez is to see his side win the game on the night. Even at the Bernabèu, this is no easy task.
Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo described the game against Wolfsburg as the 'perfect night'.If Cristiano is fit to play on Wednesday, we might just see another Portuguese holocaust rain terror. Madrid that night were at times in truth, unplayable. If we see anything or even more of what we saw at the Bernabèu last time out, we could see them take that one step closer when they are one game away from clinching La Undecima.
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