Real Madrid has advanced to the Champions League semi-finals for the seventh successive season.
Zinedine Zidane’s Los Blancos defeated Bayern Munich 4-2 in the quarter-final second leg to progress 6-3 on aggregate thanks to a perfect, yet controversial hat-trick from Cristiano Ronaldo.
It was a night to forget for the match officials who made errors on at least a handful of incidents at the Santiago Bernabeu which essentially cost Bayern the tie.
After a 2-1 loss in Munich last week, the Germans struck first through Robert Lewandowski who converted from the penalty spot on 53 minutes after Arjen Robben had been brought down in the area by Casemiro.
On 76 minutes, Ronaldo pulled his side back into the contest when heading home Casemiro’s lovely ball from the right before a calamitous own-goal, almost immediately, from Sergio Ramos saw Bayern again edge ahead on the night.
There was an extremely questionable decision in the 84th minute when Arturo Vidal was sent off for a second bookable offence, causing great consternation among the Bayern bench, before the match ticked along into extra-time with a 3-3 aggregate.
The most controversial decision, or non-decision, of the night came in the 104th minute when a Ramos free-kick found Ronaldo in the box but the Portuguese superstar was clearly offside. Nevertheless, he controlled with his chest and finished neatly with his left foot to give Real the ascendency.
Five minutes later, and Ronaldo had completed his treble when receiving a ball from Marcelo after the left-back made a dazzling run through the Bayern defence.
Once again there was a hint of offside but play was allowed to resume and Ronaldo slotted home easily with his right foot for his 100th Champions League goal, and his second successive quarter-final second leg hat-trick having netted three times to beat Wolfsburg last season.
The 32-year-old now has 103 European goals overall, 41 hat-tricks for the Spanish giants and a remarkable 395 goals in total for Real.
To wrap up proceedings, Real hit Bayern on the break resulting in a nice finish from Marco Asensio in the 112th minute to send Zizou’s men into the final four somewhat at the frustration of Carlo Ancelotti’s Bavarians.
Read more at http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/cristiano-ronaldo-reaches-100-ucl-goals-as-real-madrid-close-in-on-title-defence-4178020#CokQl5ZwPI6Pgk3L.99
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