Ahat-trick from Cristiano Ronaldo has Real Madrid on the verge of a second straight Champions League final appearance after a 3-0 win over Atletico Madrid in their semi-final first leg on Tuesday night at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
The Portuguese opened the scoring with a 10th minute header before doubling the margin with a fine 73rd minute strike and then tacking on an 86th minute goal to give Real a healthy advantage going into next Wednesday’s return leg at the Vicente Calderon.
Real were excellent in all phases, thoroughly dominating Atletico in the first-half before putting the Colchoneros to the sword in the second. Ronaldo will be richly deserving of the plaudits for his sublime finishing, but every man in a white shirt gave a class performance in humbling their crosstown rivals as Los Blancos are now just 90 minutes away from the final in Cardiff.
Real manager Zinedine Zidane made two changes of note from the team that defeated Valencia on Saturday. Isco, whose form in recent weeks has been nothing but sensational, was the man chosen to start in place of the injured Gareth Bale, while James was sent back to the bench. The French coach also made the eyebrow-raising call to start Raphael Varane ahead of Nacho at centre-back.
There were a couple question marks about Atletico boss Diego Simeone’s initial starting XI, in which he had centre-back Stefan Savic lined up to play right-back, but it emerged later that in fact Lucas would man the right side of the defence, while Savic partnered with Diego Godin at centre-back. Yannick Carrasco returned from a shoulder injury to join Gabi, Saul and Koke in midfield, while up top Kevin Gameiro got the nod ahead of Fernando Torres to join Antoine Griezmann.
Real could not have asked for a better start, as Ronaldo struck just shy of the 10-minute mark to hand Los Blancos a 1-0 lead. Atletico failed to properly deal with a Sergio Ramos cross and it landed to Casemiro, who sent back a bouncing cross that met the surging forehead of Ronaldo for the goal.
The hosts were suffocating their city rivals and Varane was achingly close to making it two, but Oblak used every centimeter of his long frame to push away the French defender’s header off a corner kick. There was some big goalkeeping at the other end too, as Real No.1 Keylor Navas came off his line alertly to snuff out a Gameiro chance.
The pinpoint passing displayed by Zidane’s men had Atletico running, rendering the Colchoneros’ press all but useless. Marcelo’s bombing runs forward opened all sorts of space and Luka Modric nearly took advantage midway through but his well-hit worm-burner went sizzling wide. That was followed by Ronaldo setting up Benzema but the overhead kick from the French spun just over the crossbar.
Outside of a set-piece that almost saw Godin score, Atletico mustered little in attack. Any time Atletico looked to counter, Sergio Ramos, Varane or Casemiro were there to cut it short, re-starting another game of chase. All things considered though, Atletico could consider themselves fortunate for only being down 1-0 at half-time.
An injury to Carvajal right before the break forced Zidane to make his first change, as Nacho came on to play right-back. Simeone waited slightly longer to go to his bench, and opted for Nico Gaitan and Fernando Torres to provide a spark in place of Saul and Gameiro, respectively.
Atletico looked a better side at the start of the second-half. They closed down spaces and started winning balls in the midfield, but still things favoured Los Blancos heading into the final half-hour.
With Isco on a yellow and coming dangerously close to a second, Zidane elected to make his second change, bringing on Marco Asensio for Isco, while Simeone made one final attacking switch, with Angel Correa replacing Carrasco.
For all their good defending in the second stanza, Atletico were done in by an opportune Ronaldo to extend Real’s advantage to 2-0. It started with some fine work from Benzema, who muscled off Godin before feeding Ronaldo, whose first touch was deflected by Filipe Luis, but it landed perfectly for the Portuguese to rocket in.
Staring at a 2-0 deficit, an away goal was imperative for Atletico and Simeone was forced to commit numbers forward, which at the same time left his defence even more vulnerable to a Real counter-attack.
Atletico never got to Navas’ goal and Simeone could only watch helplessly as Ronaldo put the Colchoneros in an even deeper hole with his third goal of the night just four minutes from full-time. Real showed why they are arguably best counter-attacking team in Europe, as substitute Lucas Vazquez surged to the end-line before cutting back a pass that Casemiro dummied, leaving Ronaldo a wide open shot to hammer in past Oblak for the 3-0 final scoreline.
Real return to action in la Liga on Saturday at Granada.
Match Sheet:
3.- Real Madrid: Keylor; Carvajal (Nacho, min. 46), Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Casemiro, Kroos, Modric; Isco (Asensio, min. 67), Ronaldo, Benzema (Lucas Vazquez, min. 78)
0.- Atletico Madrid: Oblak; Savic, Lucas, Godin, Filipe Luis; Gabi, Saul (Gaitan, min. 58), Koke, Carrasco (Correa, min. 68); Griezmann, Gameiro (Torres, min. 57).
Goals: 1-0, min. 10: Ronaldo; 2-0, min. 73: Ronaldo; 3-0, min. 86: Ronaldo
Referee: Martin Atkinson (England). Yellow Cards: Koke (Min. 26) for Atletico Madrid, Isco (Min. 48) for Real Madrid, Saul (Min. 53) for Atletico Madrid, Savic (Min. 83) for Atletico Madrid
Red cards: None
Stadium: Santiago Bernabeu
Attendance: 80.044
