It was a beautiful night of football as Real Madrid and Bayern Munich played the second leg of their quarterfinal fixture at the Santiago Bernabéu. Madrid had the advantage of two away goals after winning 2 – 1 away at the Allianz Arena going into the fixture. Two of the best-attacking teams in Europe - Madrid and Bayern - both played for a place at the Semi-finals of the competition.
Aside from two controversial calls by the referee – Vidal’s sending off and Ronaldo’s offside goal – the match was a delight to watch for neutrals.
Some Interesting Stats
The fixture is the most played in European championship history; both teams have now met a record 24 times. Bayern and Madrid have both won 11 times and drawn twice. The first meeting between the German and Spanish club sides was in the 1975/1976 season of the European championship. In the last meeting between the two teams Carlo Ancelotti was the manager of Real Madrid, he is now in charge of the Bayern. The current manager of Real Zinedine Zidane was his assistant when he was the manager of Madrid.
Phillip Lahm and Xabi Alonso of Bayern both played their last Uefa Champions League matches yesterday, both players are retiring at the end of the season. The red card shown to Vidal was the 19th dismissal for Bayern in the Champions League, only Juventus has more dismissals – 22. Tony Kroos, Arjen Robben and Xabi Alonso have played for both teams – Kroos being the most recent; moving to Real 3 seasons ago.
Madrid is the first team to qualify for 7 consecutive semi-finals in UEFA Champions League history. Real Madrid has won 11 European titles, the highest in European football history. No team has scored a headed goal against Bayern this season until Ronaldo’s header in yesterday’s match. The Spanish side has scored the most away goals in the Champions League this season with 16 goals.
The Portuguese’s Stats
Cristiano Ronaldo scored 5 goals against the Bavarians, 2 at the Allianz Arena in Munich and 3 at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid becoming the first player to score 100 goals in the Champions League and the first to score a hattrick in 2 consecutive quarterfinals. The Portuguese forward has scored in his last 3 visits to Germany and the final stages of the Champions League in the last 3 seasons. The Champions League seems to be his favourite competition.
The Spanish football giants are a good position to win the Champions League and the Spanish League title. They play Barcelona on Sunday the 23 of April at the home and currently 4 points on top of the league with an outstanding game. The result of the fixture may determine the winners of the Spanish league title this season.