Champions League: Madrid survive home team fightback

Galatasaray give a scare before going down in quarter-final.

ISTANBUL: Real Madrid were relieved after qualifying for their third  successive Champions League semi-final 5-3 on aggregate, despite losing 3-2 after a second-half onslaught from Galatasaray

Already leading 3-0 from the first-leg last week, it took Los Blancos just eight minutes to build on their advantage as Sami Khedira crossed for Cristiano Ronaldo to prod home from close range.

However, after Ronaldo had missed a gilt edged opportunity to double his tally on the night, Galatasaray produced a remarkable comeback as Emmanuel Eboue thumped in an equaliser from the edge of the box.

Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba then added two goals in a minute to ensure a nervy final 18 minutes for Madrid.



Alvaro Arbeloa saw two quick-fire yellow cards a minute from time to ensure he will miss the first-leg of the semi-final, before Ronaldo sealed Madrid’s path into the last-four with another sweet strike in stoppage time — his 49th in the Champions League taking him to fifth on the all-time list.

“It is our own fault it became complicated,” Ronaldo told Spanish TV station TVE.

“In football you cannot gift anything. Today that is what happened and it ought to serve as an example.”

Ronaldo’s brace also took him past club legend Alfredo Di Stefano into 11th place in the all-time records for goals scored in European competitions, but he was more concerned with having achieved a place in the last-four.

“The team is fine, they gave me good passes and I did my job, which is to score goals. We have achieved our objective.”

Malaga president calls for Dortmund inquiry

Malaga president Abdullah bin Nasser al-Thani has called for Uefa to investigate his team’s dramatic 3-2 Champions League defeat at Borussia Dortmund which he blamed on racism.

Dortmund scored two goals in 70 seconds in added time at home to reach the last-four of the Champions League after their dramatic quarter-final finished 3-2 on aggregate after last Wednesday’s goalless first-leg in Malaga.

Replays showed both Germany midfielder Marco Reus’ 91st-minute equaliser and Felipe Santana’s 93rd-minute match-winner looked to have been scored from offside positions, leaving Malaga’s Qatari billionaire president fuming.

“This is not football, but racism, clearly,” al-Thani wrote on his Twitter account after his side were denied a Champions League semi-final place on their first season in the competition.

“I hope to open a thorough investigation.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2013.