Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
We already know one half of this seasons Champions League Final line up after Juventus made sure of their trip to Cardiff with a 2-1 win over Monaco last night. That meant that Massimo Allegri’s men ran out 4-1 winners on aggregate but the question now is who will join them?
In fairness we probably already know the answer to that one what with Real’s near unassailable 3-o advantage from the 1st leg win at The Bernabeu last Tuesday night. Once again it was Cristiano Ronaldo who stole the plaudits after he bagged a second successive hat-trick in the competition.
After a slightly dubious one in the Quarter Final 2nd Leg against Bayern Munich there was no doubting the validity of the Portuguese star’s goals 8 days ago. Not only has put more than one foot in the final for Los Blancos but it also means that Ronaldo has scored 103 goals in the tournament.
To just show how phenomenal of a stat that is, opponents Atletico Madrid have scored 100 in their whole participation. That is the magnitude of goals that we are dealing with and it is those that put Real just 90 minutes away from successive Champions League final.
Zinedine Zidane’s side will come into this game well rested after he played a near reserve side in their 4-0 win away at Granada on Saturday night, such was the ease of the task that Real put the brakes on in the second half with all the goals being scored in the first 45 minutes.
That win keeps them hot on the heels of Barcelona and not forgetting they still have the all important game in hand to play away at Celta in the final week of the season. That looks like it is going to be the game that will confirm the destiny of this seasons La Liga crown.
While for hosts Atletico they made slightly difficult work of beating a resolute Eibar on Saturday night. Diego Simeone’s men could only manage a solitary goal in front of their own fans, although that was enough they are going to have to be more prolific tonight if they are to have any chance of progressing.
The question that must be asked is that if Atletico do go out of the competition tonight then is this the end of the cycle for the club. Diego Simeone has often been linked with a move to Inter Milan while Antoine Griezmann has been continually linked with Manchester United.
Griezmann may well feel that a move to United can only be seriously entertained should Jose Mourinho’s men win the Europa League this season. The Red Devils may well be prepared to break the bank but will the French international want to play in Europe’s second tier competition.
Atletico have twice been the bridesmaid in the past three seasons but you get the feeling that they are not even going to get to the wedding this time around. They will be playing for pride if nothing else, with the first goal in this game being the all important.
Should Atletico get the first then you never know we may well have a game on our hands but I cannot see anything other than Real reaching back to back finals regardless of what the final score proves to be. It’s going to be a Juventus vs Real Madrid final at the start of the June.
