Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo. (Photo : Getty Images)
La Liga giants Real Madrid CF has a mountain to climb if they want to advance in the semifinals of this season's UEFA Champions League competitions as the team faces Bundesliga's mid-table squad VfL Wolfsburg for the second leg of their quarterfinals head-to-head contest at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Tuesday, April 12th.
Germany top flight's middling team Wolfsburg stunned recent Barcelona-slayers Real Madrid, 2-0, at the Volkswagen Arena during the two team's first leg final eight encounter on April 6th, as per The Telegraph.
Die Wölfe's Swiss defender Ricardo Rodriguez scored the opening goal of the match with a successful penalty kick at the 18th minute. Seven minutes later, German midfielder Maximilian Arnold doubled the lead with a goal at the 25th off a six-yard low ball cross from Brazilian forward Bruno Henrique, drawing a wild frenzy from the Volkswagen Arena crowd.
Los Blancos was not able to respond with any goals for the rest of the way even as their top three goal scorers, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale, have all started the match.
Head coach Dieter Hecking's boys overcame heavy odds in pulling away with the home win as Zinedine Zidane's squad was just four days removed from their improbable 2-1 El Clásico win at the Camp Nou and are carrying a lot of momentum coming into the match. The Wolves also did it against Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who has not conceded a goal in 720 minutes of European competitions until the Germans' two-goal haul.
Wolfsburg was also coming off a 0-3 beating to Bayer Leverkusen before they faced the Spanish capital city stalwarts, which is why they were not favored to win the match even if it was played in their home stadium.
Real needs to overcome a two-goal first leg shortfall at the Bernabéu on Tuesday to advance in the Final Four. The club has never had to do it since Los Vikingos beat the Red Star Brigade in the quarterfinals of the European Cup way back in 1987.
According to Marca, only about 37 percent of Real's fans said in a survey that their team will be successful in their comeback attempt versus Wolfsburg this week, but an overwhelming majority of media men and reporters predict that Zidane and company will be able to pull off the mission despite the first leg setback.
Cuatro's Juanma Castano said that "it's very difficult to see Los Blancos being surprised in the space of a week by Wolfsburg" while Ser's Mario Torrejon that "there is a big quality difference" between the two clubs which is why Real will still advance.
The predicted result is a 3-0 bounce back victory for Real Madrid.
Real Madrid starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Navas; Danilo, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Modric, Casemiro, Kroos; Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo
Wolfsburg starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Benaglio; Vieirinha, Naldo, Dante, Rodriguez; Guilavogui, Gustavo; Pinto, Arnold, Draxler; Schurrle
