Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to send Real Madrid
into a seventh-successive UEFA Champions League semi-final after a 4-2
win over Bayern Munich in the quarter-final second leg at the Santiago
Bernabeu Stadium on Tuesday night.
Ronaldo's hat-trick helped Real
Madrid battle past 10-man Bayern Munich and into the Champions League
semi-finals, with a 4-2 extra-time win (6-3 on aggregate) in an epic
encounter at the Bernabeu.
Needing to score at least twice to go through after a 2-1
defeat in the first leg of the quarter-final tie, Bayern struck the
first blow on Tuesday night with a Robert Lewandowski penalty shortly
after half-time.
Sergio Ramos' own goal sent the game into
extra-time after Ronaldo - who became the first player to reach 100
Champions League goals - had levelled on the night for Real.
The turning point, though, was when Arturo Vidal received a second
yellow card late on to leave Bayern a man light, and Ronaldo capitalised
with two more goals, the first of which was scored from an offside
position, before substitute Marco Asensio completed the scoring with a
fourth for Real.
The Spanish giants now head into the final four
of the competition, their seventh straight semi-final, while Bayern fall
at their earliest stage since 2009.
It was Bayern who started the
sharper at the Bernabeu, and they would have opened the scoring after
nine minutes were it not for an excellent piece of defending by Marcelo,
who managed to scamper across to deny Thiago Alcantara from close range
with a crucial last-ditch block.
Real worked their way into the
ascendancy as the half dragged on, and created a couple of great chances
to take the lead.
First, Ramos saw a shot cleared off the line by
Jerome Boateng, before Ronaldo raced in behind and hit a shot straight
at Manuel Neuer - when he should instead have squared across for Karim
Benzema in the far better position.
Bayern regained the momentum
after the break, but were denied again by Marcelo after 50 minutes, who
was alert enough to race back onto his line to keep out Arjen Robben's
chipped effort.
The Dutchman did make the difference shortly afterwards,
however, as he was tripped by Casemiro in the box and Lewandowski
stepped up to slot the resulting penalty.
Casemiro then took it
upon himself to make up for conceding the spot kick, as he created the
goal which levelled the game on the night with 15 minutes of normal time
remaining, clipping a fine ball into the box for Ronaldo to head home
his first, adding to the two he scored last week at the Allianz Arena.
That
was not to be the end of the drama. The tie turned on its head again in
the 84th minute as Vidal was shown a second yellow card for a challenge
on Asensio and left Bayern with 10 men, despite the Chilean - who had
scored and missed a penalty in the first leg - appearing to take the
ball before the man.
It was Real who struck the killer on the
stroke of the break in extra-time. Again, though, it was a decision that
went their way as Ronaldo picked up the ball in an offside position in
the box before punting it past Neuer.
And that was that for
Bayern, who saw Ronaldo complete a perfect hat-trick later in extra-time
before Asensio rushed through to add insult to injury with Real's
fourth of the night.
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