Real Madrid all but secured their place in the semi-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday with a 3-0 defeat of Galatasaray in their quarter-final first-leg match, while Malaga and Borussia Dortmund played out a goalless draw.
Jose Mourinho’s side were just too strong for the Turkish league leaders, opening the scoring through Cristiano Ronaldo in the ninth minute and never looking back on a wet night at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid.
Ronaldo neatly chipped visiting goalkeeper Fernando Muslera for his ninth European goal of the season, before Karim Benzema justified Mourinho’s decision to select him in the starting lineup by sweeping home a cross from Michael Essien — a surprise starter at rightback — to double Real’s lead just before the half-hour mark.
Photo: Reuters
A Galatasaray side containing former Champions League winners — and Mourinho proteges — Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba, as well as on-form striker Burak Yilmaz, could offer little for their huge group of supporters to shout about, and the concession of a third goal in the 73rd minute ended their hopes of turning the tie around.
Gonzalo Higuain, who had replaced Benzema, neatly headed in a Xabi Alonso free-kick to put the seal on a highly satisfactory evening for the nine-time European champions.
“I think we put in a serious performance,” Mourinho said. “The Spanish press were not so respectful of Galatasaray before the game, but we respected them. We knew they had fantastic strikers, so we prepared well and defended better than we attacked.”
The Portuguese insisted that bookings picked up by Alonso and Sergio Ramos, ruling both out of the second leg, were not deliberately provoked in order to make them available for the semi-finals.
He also insisted that the tie is not yet over, despite the comfortable cushion.
“The result is very good, but I’ve seen so many incredible things in football that nothing can surprise me,” he added.
Galatasaray manager Fatih Terim admitted that his side were punished for basic errors and took out his frustration on the referee, Norwegian Svein Oddvar Moen.
“You cannot make mistakes at this level, but we made very basic mistakes at the first and second goals,” he said. “I don’t like to talk about referees, but this one made mistakes, like missing a stamp by Ramos on Yilmaz in the box. Everyone saw it except him.”
Meanwhile, Malaga’s tie with Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund remains on a knife-edge after the teams drew 0-0 at La Rosaleda.
Dortmund, the 1997 European champions, dominated in southern Spain, but could not find a way past Willy Caballero in the home goal, with the Argentine making notable saves from Mario Goetze and Marco Reus shots in the first half.
Goetze and Robert Lewandowski squandered the German giants’ best chances in the second period, while a first-half Weligton header and a second-half Isco piledriver were as close as Malaga came to scoring on the night.
They remain in the tie, especially with Dortmund failing to score a potentially vital away goal.
However, the suspicion remains that the tie is Borussia’s to lose, with the return to come on Tuesday next week.
“I can live with this 0-0. It was a good match against tough opponents,” Dortmund manager Juergen Klopp said. “We played well from the first whistle to the last, but this is the highest level. We know what we have to do in the return.”
Malaga manager Manuel Pellegrini, who took Villarreal to the Champions League semi-finals in 2006, believes the tie is wide open.
“I don’t think the game in Germany will be too different from tonight, only an early goal for either team could change things. Both sides went for it tonight and it made for a good open game,” he said.
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Roger Federer on Wednesday said that staying involved with tennis in retirement helped him avoid feeling “like an alien” ahead of this week’s Laver Cup in Berlin. Federer, who helped create the tournament, retired at the Laver Cup in London two years ago and has since stayed involved with the competition as an ambassador. “I’m happy I went back right away to some tournaments,” the 43-year-old told reporters. “I feel I ripped the Band-Aid off quite quickly and when I walk around the tennis sites I still feel I belong there,” he said. “I don’t feel like an alien, which is a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two