Galatasaray are in real danger after falling two goals behind Real Madrid in the first half, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema doing the damage. The visitors have, however, had just as many chances and really should've troubled Diego Lopez more.
Cristiano Ronaldo was always going to be a threat down the right against Albert Riera, and it was no surprise to see him open the scoring. Mesut Ozil played him through with a fantastic ball, and the winger lifted a glorious chip over Fernando Muslera and into the far corner to put Madrid ahead.
Galatasaray's gameplan was probably to hope their back four and midfield three could keep things tight, with Wesley Sneijder, Didier Drogba and Burak Yilmaz looking to steal a goal on the break. Their front three did indeed look dangerous, with Raphael Varane making an error in allowing Didier Drogba to turn into a good shooting position, but the Ivorian fired his shot wastefully over the bar. The other part of that plan was not working as well, however, with Galatasaray's defence looking shaky to say the least.
Michael Essien was looking a big threat for Madrid on the overlap, and it was the Ghanaian who set up a second goal for Madrid, curling a good cross to the back post which was calmly controlled and coolly finished by Karim Benzema, leaving Galatasaray in serious trouble.
Nonetheless, the visitors were still looking a danger going forwards, and Drogba's strength allowed him to chip in a pass to Yilmaz 12 yards from goal shortly afterwards, but the man who was until Cristiano Ronaldo's opener joint top scorer in the competition put his volley wide.
There was an even better chance for Galatasaray just afterwards too, as Emmanuel Eboue made progress down the right with a buccaneering run, playing a one-two with Drogba to get into the area with a clear chance far too easily, but his fierce drive was right at Lopez and Real Madrid were let off once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment