Madrid end APOEL's Champions League dream
Real Madrid have one foot and a half in the Semi-finals after winning 0-3 against APOEL yesterday in the GSP Stadium.
Madrid started very relaxed, they knew they could beat APOEL easily, and like most Real games, once they score the first one, the next goals start flying in.
Mourinho surprised everyone with his line-up; everyone thought Granero would replace Xabi Alonso to play alongside Khedira in midfield, but instead he chose Nuri Sahin to play alongside the German. Sahin had a really good match, wining over the respect of Madrid fans.
The thing that proved decisive in this match was when Mourinho decided to bring in Marcelo and Kaká to replace Higuain and Fabio Coentrao in minute 63 of the match, until then Madrid had just been strolling through the pitch.
Madrid set the pace to the match, APOEL just went along with it, the Spaniards were calm and patient, and instead of creating chances the Cypriots looked like they were just waiting for Madrid to let them have a chance.
In the first half Karim Benzema had an open goal chance that went flying over the way above the goal.
The goals came late in the second half, and within quarter of an hour. In the 73’ the score was still 0-0 until Benzema lead the way, redeeming himself from the clear chance he missed earlier by scoring the first of his two goals. At this point APOEL went on to defend all they could, but it proved not to be enough.
Less than 10 minutes after it was Kaka’s turn to score; Marcelo did most of the leg work and passed the ball to his Brazilian compatriot who hit it firmly to the back of the net.
At this point it was 0-2, and just minutes before the final whistle, Benzema scored his second goal of the night, with a pass from Ozil, to make it 0-3. It has been 27 years since Madrid don’t win with a 3 goal difference in a Champions League match, the last once was in 1985 against Hungarian club Videoton FC.
Benzema, with these two goals becomes Madrid’s top goalscorer in this Champions League, he has 7, and overall he is third, behind Messi with 12 and Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez (10).
Next week is the second leg at the Bernabeu, if turning a 3 goal deficit was hard enough, APOEL also have to fight against the hunger that Madrid have to win their 10th Champions League.
Source: DSG
