Javier Hernandez came to Real Madrid’s rescue with a goal in the 88th minute, scoring the only goal over two legs. Monaco failed to prevent an Italian job as they bowed out of the quarterfinals by the margin of a solitary goal, scored in Turin.
Ever since Real’s historic win in Lisbon, the Los Blancos had failed to win against their city rivals for 7 consecutive games and considering Real’s injury problems, it was going to be tough night for Carlo Ancelotti’s men. With the likes of Benzema, Bale, Modric and Marcelo absent, the Italian coach was forced to play Sergio Ramos in midfield and Javier ‘Chicharito’Hernandez as striker. Real began the game convincingly, pressing intensely and after a defensive error, Ronaldo dragged his left-footed effort just wide from 25 yards. Atletico steadily regained their composure but failed to threaten Iker Casillas’ goal. In the 31st minute, Ronaldo’s free-kick from distance was quite capably saved by Jan Oblak, the hero of the first leg. The Portuguese winger missed a glorious chance in the dying moments of first-half when Carvajal stole possession from Mandzukic and slipped the ball to Ronaldo, who was denied yet again by Oblak.
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After the interval, Real were back at it again and Isco’s defence-splitting pass was wasted by Hernandez, shooting inches wide of the far post. In the 78th minute, another pinch of salt was added to an ill-tempered encounter, when Arda Turan was given his marching orders for a late, high-footed and unwise tackle on Ramos and despite the fact that the Spaniard made a meal out of it, referee Felix Brych was correct to hand out the Turk his second yellow-card of the evening. Undeniably, this decision changed the dynamics of the game and Diego Simeone was left calculating his options at the touchline. As expected, Atletico decided to hold back and fight out the final minutes of regulation time and hope for penalties after another 30 minutes of extra-time. Hernandez missed another chance in the 80th minute, when his diagonal shot from the right-side was saved by Oblak. In the 88th minute, the on-loan striker finally got his goal, albeit under easy circumstances, when James Rodriguez played Ronaldo in the box and the Ballon d’Or winner quite wisely passed it to Hernandez who tapped-in to score the winner. James Rodriguez was the architect of the goal playing a brilliant one-two with Ronaldo at the edge of the penalty-box, who unselfishly gave his Mexican partner the opportunity to send the Bernabeu into a state of mass hysteria.
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Juventus visited the Stade Louis II in search of a semifinal spot for the first time in 12 years and were well on course to do so, following their narrow win in the first leg. Monaco began the game on the front foot and Kondogbia’s volley in the 4th minute was a couple of yards wide of Buffon’s goal. Bernardo Silva engaged in a lovely one-two with Carrasco and Silva’s cut-back was cleared off the line by Barazagli, who was relieved to see the ball go past the post and not into his own net. In the dying seconds before the break, Tevez’s shot from 25 yards was agonizingly wide as Subasic was rooted to the ground. Monaco were showing intent and created plenty of half-chances but Juventus defended brilliantly to keep the tie on their favor.
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Monaco made an attacking change at the interval as Berbatov replaced the holding midfielder Jeremy Toulalan. The hosts attacked and the visitors defended – it was almost like a hand-written script lacking a motivating plot. In the 58th minute, Morata wasted a rare Juventus counter-attack when he failed to supply Tevez and was bullied off the ball by Abdennour. The defensive trio of Barzagli, Bonucci and Chiellini ensured that Buffon kept a clean-sheet and although they conceded a few corners and free-kicks, the set-pieces by Monaco were horrendous, to say the least. As the clock ran down, it seemed as if Monaco ran out of all plausible ideas and seemed to have accepted the fact that this was an extraordinary campaign by their standards. In the end, Monaco simply couldn’t create enough problems for the disciplined Juventus defence, a side which thoroughly deserved to proceed to semifinals.
Tags: Atletico Juventus Monaco
