MY ACCOUNT
Real Madrid are the masters of eliminating English sides from the Champions League.
On their route to glory last season, Los Blancos took care of Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool — and they are on course to sink the same trio this term.
With the Reds and Blues already accounted for in the last two knockout rounds, only City stand between Carlo Ancelotti’s side making a sixth final appearance in the last 10 seasons.
Ahead of tonight’s semi-final first leg with the English champions, we consider what makes Madrid so dangerous against Premier League opposition.
Big hitters
While Madrid have struggled for consistency in LaLiga recently, their key players always seem to rise to the occasion against English sides.
Goal machine Karim Benzema netted seven of his 15 goals in last term’s Champions League against Chelsea and Manchester City alone.
The Frenchman, 35, has carried that habit into this campaign, bagging all four of his goals in Europe so far against the Blues and Liverpool.
Luka Modric is another who seems to thrive in such contests.
Midfield maestro Modric spent four seasons on English shores with Tottenham before heading to the Bernabeu in 2012 and produced two man-of-the-match displays against Premier League opposition last term.
Super speed
One thing Madrid possess in abundance is pace in wide areas — something which often seems to be the undoing of their English opponents.
This season’s quarter-final second leg against Chelsea was a prime example. For most of the first half, Los Blancos found themselves put under huge pressure by Frank Lampard’s hosts.
But when an opportunity arose to kill the tie, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo showed a devastating turn of foot to brilliantly pick the Blues off on the counter-attack.
Those same methods helped the Spanish giants stick six past City across two legs last season too, with Vinicius scoring a particularly memorable solo goal at the Etihad when burning past several defenders.
Under Ancelotti, Madrid are content having less possession if that means more space in behind an opposition backline for them to exploit.
Ruthless efficiency
City’s players will not need reminding of how frequently this Madrid side punish lapses in concentration.
Last season, despite dominating their home leg, Pep Guardiola’s emerged with only a one-goal advantage — their 4-3 win marred by shoddy finishing and a ruthless Los Blancos attacking display.
Then it was more of the same in the second leg, with City spurning chance after chance before their hosts eventually turned the tie on its head in dramatic fashion.
Across 120 minutes in the Bernabeu, City managed 10 shots on target but scored only once. Madrid, meanwhile, scored three of their five attempts on goal.
Late show
Even if City do take control of their semi-final tie, it is imperative they concentrate until the final whistle.
Madrid’s run to the final last year was littered with late drama. They were 2-0 down in the last 16 to Paris Saint-Germain before Karim Benzema netted a hat-trick in the final half-hour of the contest.
Against Chelsea in the quarter-final, a late Rodrygo goal forced extra-time before Benzema won the tie in the additional period — a series of events that amazingly repeated themselves against City in the semis.
Though this Madrid team are not always dominant over a 90-minute period, they are undisputedly one of the best teams in football history when it comes to producing late fightbacks.
