Read on as iSporter Ankit Sharma shares his post-match analysis on Real Madrid v Lyon: HOW and WHY he thinks the home side crashed out even after a dream start as the vistors had a promising comeback in the second half and deserved to qualify...
Real Madrid were knocked out of the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League for the 6th consecutive season after they were held to a thrilling 1-1 draw at the Santiago Bernabeu against Olympique Lyonnais. Madrid, who were trailing 0-1 after the first leg, began brilliantly with a 6th minute goal by Cristiano Ronaldo. His strike was however,cancelled out by Miralem Pjanic in the 75th minute to knock the glittering stars of Real Madrid out of this year's Champions League.
The home side enjoyed a dream start as they came out firing on all cylinders. After just 16 seconds, Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, was pressed into service. He came out to deny Kaka, and within six minutes Madrid were ahead. Guti's ball over the top from inside his own half put Ronaldo in on the left and his low left-footed drive thundered into the goal under Lloris. Madrid then went on a rampage display of creative football but just couldn’t increase their lead. Kaka, Ronaldo and Higuain all went close with Higuain missing an unbelievable chance to double Madrid’s lead in the 25th minute. Higuain broke in behind the Lyon back four and skipped past Lloris, but with an open goal left to his mercy, the Argentinine somehow managed to hit the post. Lyon had a good chance when a deflected cross reached Jean Makoun eight yards out, but the midfielder couldn’t shoot well enough and Madrid were let off.
Lyon coach, Claude Puel substituted Jean-Alain Boumsong and Makoun with Kim Kallstrom and Maxime Gonalons at the half time. The move turned out to be a master stroke as Lyon came out charging at Madrid in the second half. The first promising sign for the visitors came immediately after the restart when Gonalons won a header at the far post, but his effort cleared the crossbar. In the 52nd minute, Sidney Govou missed another chance to score. Lyon continued to press in spite of a couple of efforts from Kaka and Esteban Granero but both couldn’t finish.
Lyon finally scored a well deserved goal in the 75th minute when Pjanic picked up a lay-off from Lisandro inside the area before thumping a half-volley past Casillas. The Madrid players now knew they would have to score 3 goals to go through. Immediately, Raul was brought off the bench to replace Kaka as the expected onslaught began. Crosses rained into Lloris box, but a combination of solid defending and poor delivery prevented los Blancos even threatening the visiting net. Lisandro and Cesar Delgado both missed chances when clean through at the end. Real Madrid enjoyed close to 68% of ball possession but have no one else to blame for their downfall after missing numerable chances in the first half.
Questions would definitely be raised on the future of Manuel Pellegrini as the coach of the expensively assembled unit at Real Madrid. The Los Blancos’ dream of claiming a tenth European title on home soil has been ended rather prematurely and some consequences could be expected. Pellegrini said his future depended on the club's management board and he planned to continue working, with the domestic league now Real's only chance of silverware this season. However, the way Barcelona have been playing this season, Madrid may have to endure a horrible nightmare of having to go through a trophy-less season after spending hundreds of millions of Euros on the likes of Ronaldo, Kaka, Xabi Alonso and Benzema.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments
Show/hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
