By Greg Robertson
Hello and welcome to Estadio Santiago Bernabeu where we have Spain’s Real Madrid hosting Galatasaray in the first leg UEFA Champions League 2013 quarter-final action. Football, at it’s finest.
Let’s face it, Real Madrid are favourites. Los Blancos have won the Champions League nine times and the hunt is on for La Decima.
We bring you live streaming written commentary, video highlights and all the action of the Champs League. Make sure you REFRESH your browser occasionally so you don’t miss any of the action. Video will be put up at the final whistle.
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LIVE COMMENTARY... Real Madrid 3 – 0 Galatasaray
FULLTIME: Real Madrid win 3-0. ALL VIDEO IS UP.
90 MINS: Real Madrid with a five man wall... Drogba over the ball it's flicked off the top of the wall for a corner. THREE ADDITIONAL MINUTES. Modric now booked. The cards are flying from the ref's pocket.
88 MINS: Drogba received a yellow card but I missed what it was for... the wind really has gone out of the sails of both sides. Ramos gets a needless booking for kicking the ball away. Free kick right on the edge of the box.
86 MINS: Di Maria off and Pepe coming on for Real Madrid. Game just winding down now and many of the crowd are heading off into the Madrid night happy with the work their team has done.
81 MINS: Inan shoots from distance but doesn't trouble Lopez in the Real Madrid goal. Modric with a chance within a minute of coming onto the field and tries to bend it from 26 years, Muslera padding it down. Riera off and Ambrabat on for Galatasaray.
76 MINS: Ronaldo tries an acrobatic volley but there's bodies in the way and it hits one and goes out for a corner. Bruak Yilmaz gets a yellow card from diving in the box. Ozil off, being substituted and Luka Modric is on.
73 MINS: GOAL! Higuain makes it up by heading home! It's 3-0! A ball floated in from a free kick and the Argentine has plenty of time to pick his spot. VIDEO UP SOON.
71 MINS: Free kick for Real and they send a heap of players forward... three deliveries resulted into the box and the heat went on but the Galatasaray defence was able to hold strong. Melo gets a yellow card for a soft challenge on Ozil. From the free kick Higuain is caught offside when a chance falls to his feet.
66 MINS: Drogba with a nice cross and then it's whipped back in from the other side. Some dangerous looking crosses there. Every now and then they throw a reminder to the home side that this game is by no means over at 2-0. They have the ability to score for sure.
62 MINS: Should have been 3-0 as Di Maria makes a delicious run right through the heart of the Galatasaray defence. He can't quite work it and in the end he produced a weak shot straight at Muslera. VIDEO UP SOON. He sort of spoons the shot. Benzema comes off and it's Higuain replacing him.
59 MINS: Ronaldo only needs half a yard and he's found it, shoots but it's right down the throat of Muslera.
55 MINS: Promising move by the visiting side ends with Felipe Melo blasting a nasty one that bounces just in front of Lopez. Lopez does well to get down and control it. VIDEO UP SOON.
53 MINS: Galatasaray are really under the kosh when Real break out. If not for some luck and some good intervention late and just outside the box the scoreline could be anything.
50 MINS: Ronaldo clearly frustrated at Coentrao waited too long to play the ball, Ronaldo caught offside when something was on had an earlier ball been played. At the other end it's a half-hearted lob attempt from Drogba but Lopez has it covered easily. Drogba just might snag one you know.
46 MINS: Sneijder is gone for Galatasaray and replaced by Zan. We're underway. Early free kick for Real Madrid and Ronaldo blasts it into the wall.
HALFTIME: Real Madrid leads 2-0. Real Madrid in control, but a few signs late in the piece then will no doubt give Galatasaray some hope.
45 MINS: Galatasaray making a good fist of the back end of the half and it's drawn Mourinho out and pleading with his players to make sure they remain focused.
44 MINS: BIG CHANCE for Galatasaray as Drogba and Eboue combine, the defender striking a sharp one and Lopez having to keep it out with his legs. VIDEO UP SOON
41 MINS: Real Madrid are off again, up to Benzema and he skips past Nounkeu who is half a pace off the Frenchman so brings him down without a second though. Yellow card. Free kick just outside the corner of the box, left side, tight angle. Ronaldo... onto the roof of the net. Dips, just not enough. VIDEO UP SOON.
39 MINS: Galatasaray now getting a good weight of possession and trying to create chances, it's just not clicking up front just yet. Breaks... suddenly it's Essien delivering a skidding ball into the box and Ronaldo is up and acrobatic, appealing for a penalty under a challenge from defender Kaya.
35 MINS: Drogba gets the better of Sergio Ramos on the by line, rides the challenge, and dinks it in to Yilmaz who tries the volley but toe ends it under pressure.
33 MINS: Now Real Madrid are really unstitching this Galatasaray defence which was pretty loosely stitched together in the first place.
28 MINS: Well, I called it... GOAL BENZEMA! That's 2-0. Great ball in from Essien who finds Benzema at the back post. He pulls it down and finishes from close range. VIDEO UP SOON.
26 MINS: Well it's been a wide open start and now the game has just experienced it's first lull... unlikely to continue. You get the feeling that Benzema is about to break out of his scoring slump and you'd hate to be be on the other end of that. Again Drogba from distance it's swinging everywhere and Diego Lopez punches it away.
22 MINS: Galatasaray again getting forward but the danger is that when Real Madrid breaks they have space galore. It's like, here's the ball, run at us.
19 MINS: Ozil with a strong shot and Muslera is able to hold it. a good thing too with Benzema sniffing for any scraps.
17 MINS: It's not entirely one sides... Altintop lets one rip for the visitors, wide. They are having to shoot fro distance.
13 MINS: Drogba turns his defender and then lets loose but it's just wide.
9 MINS: Ronaldo scores! GOAL! brilliant ball through and he just chips it over Muslera in goal. VIDEO UP SOON. Ozil and Benzema first combined before Ozil played through Ronaldo and he finished it easily but his skill made that look easy.
7 MINS: Essien with a bustling run down the right, shrugs off any markers and then nearly delivers the perfect ball through for Benzema to run onto. It's a Real rush on right now. They have made three if not four clear incursions into the attacking third and each time they've looked like they have space.
4 MINS: Great ball to Di Maria who pulls it down with sublime precision, a little dink finds Benzema who is searching for a glancing header but he gets a little bit too much of it and it's just wide of the target. Good early moves and Di Maria looks like he's here to play. Melo, the Brazilian for Galatasaray, tries his luck from a mile out but it's well, well wide.
1 MINS: We're off! Madrid in white and Galatasaray in red. First shot comes from Di Maria after a weaving, early run but it's blocked before it can get into the penalty area.
Players now shaking hands... Essien the surprise move at the back for Real Madrid. Real's front through look very imposing.... if I was Galatasary I'd shut my eyes, open them again and hope the nightmare wasn't true. When they see Ronaldo et all though, no amount of pinching will wake them up from this one.
Wow... you should see this stadium... packed to the gunnels. Plenty of colour... plenty of volume. We have our first pictures of Ronaldo and he's smiling and joking about. Very relaxed... and that's when he plays his best football. Galatasaray has nothing to lose really, and that may take a little pressure off the Turkish club. Wesley Sneijder is likely to sit just behind Drogba in the pocket today.
Real are searching for their 24th Champions League semifinal... some record that. Galatasaray, just their second. Drogba is out their and really laying down the law, trying to egg his players on and get them up for the big challenge that is before them. Anything other than a Real Madrid win in this UEFA Champions League quarter final will be an upset of fairly epic proportions
We have our live pictures and it's 10 minutes to the kick off here we go - Real Madrid V Galatasaray.
Player on player, it's very hard to look past Real Madrid in this encounter at the Bernabeu but stranger things have happened in football. Key, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo. Yesterday we saw both Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic net for their respective sides will we see Ronaldo and perhapdDidier Droga bag some today?
With just half an hour until kick off, the teams are in...
Real Madrid: Diego Lopez, Essien, Sergio Ramos, Varane, Fabio Coentrao, Alonso, Khedira, Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo, Benzema. Subs: Adan, Pepe, Kaka, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Modric, Higuain
Galatasaray: Muslera, Eboue, Kaya, Nounkeu, Riera, Altintop, Felipe Melo, Sneijder, Inan, Burak Yilmaz, Drogba. Subs: Iscan, Zan, Bulut, Balta, Kurtulus, Amrabat, Sarioglu.
Kick off is not far way but in the meantime watch highlights as Real Madrid knocked out Manchester United.
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Possible teams
Real Madrid: Diego Lopez, Alvaro Arbeloa, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos, Fabio Coentrao; Sami Khedira, Xabi Alonso; Angel Di Maria, Mesut Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo; Gonzalo Higuain
Galatasaray: Fernando Muslera; Emmanuel Eboue, Semih Kaya, Dany Nounkeu, Albert Riera; Hamit Altintop, Felipe Melo, Selcuk Inan; Wesley Sneijder; Didier Drogba, Burak Yilmaz
Pregame banter
When you’re Jose Mourinho it’s not often you have to defend your actions.
But the Real Madrid coach has done just that, defending his decision to again omit goalkeeper Iker Casillas from his Champions League quarter-final first leg against Galatasaray at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
But with Casillas or not, Real Madrid are heavy favourites to win this UEFA Champs League quarter final, even if Galatasaray have the added incentive of a £25,000 bonus per play by Galatasaray president Unal Aysal should his side prevail.
Mourinho will be up against some familiar opponents.
Mourinho coached Didier Drogba at Chelsea before moving to Inter Milan, where he won a Champions League title in 2010 with Wesley Sneijder on his team.
Both Drogba and Sneijder have since moved to Turkey, and will be headed to the Santiago Bernabeu looking to spring a surprise on nine-time champion Madrid.
"We've come to win," said Sneijder, who also played for Real Madrid. "There is respect, but not fear."
Madrid will be heading into the match on a high after eliminating Manchester United in the previous round and Barcelona in the Copa del Rey semifinals. They also beat Spanish leader Barcelona in the league.
But the fans want more.
"Here in Madrid everyone wants the 10th (Champions League title) and that's the club's objective It starts today in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals<’ says Cristiano Ronaldo.
Against Galatasaray, Ronaldo said the team's defence will need to be sharp to control forward Burak Yilmaz.
"The truth is that he is a player who is doing well in the Champions League, given that scoring eight goals is very difficult," said Ronaldo, who has also scored eight Champions League goals this season," Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim said.
"This is a historic event for us."
3 News/AP
source: newshub archive
