Cristiano Ronaldo is now the player with most UCL victories in the history of the UEFA Champions League.
After Real Madrid beat Bayern Munich 1-2 in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals, Ronaldo surpassed Íker Casillas, a former Real Madrid teammate, who previously held the record with a total 98 wins in the tournament.
Interestingly, both players have played the majority of their UCL games for Real Madrid.
In one of the ultimate glamor ties of European club football, it was Real Madrid left back Marcelo who emerged as Wednesday’s Man of the Match in his side’s 2-1 away leg victory over Bayern Munich.
The 29-year-old Brazilian’s day got off to a flyer when opposition winger Arjen Robben was forced off with an injury as early as the 8th minute. The introduction of Thiago Alcantara as his replacement immediately shifted Bayern’s focus to the middle of the park and allowed Marcelo more freedom to get forward on the wing.
It’s 1-1 at halftime in an enthralling UEFA Champions League semifinal between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid at the Allianz Arena, Joshua Kimmich opening the scoring for Bayern in the 28’ before Marcelo’s sweet strike evened things up in the 44’.
Jupp Heynckes has been forced into two early substitutions with both Arjen Robben and Jerome Boateng limping off injured, but Bayern took the lead when Real failed to track the run of Kimmich. The 23-year-old left back then punished Real with a clinical finish.
Aside from the more technical aspects of U.S. youth soccer development, there’s a very real and very obvious significance in having players worthy of serving as inspirations to young Americans in MLS. While Lionel Messi and Neymar will always be accessible via YouTube highlights, there’s something much more tangible and effective with regards to seeing an otherworldly talent live.
Sergio Ramos is a crazy man. This is not a secret, but it takes a very special type of crazy to produce a 10-minute video of bad tackles and late challenges and elbows and the like. Ramos is nothing if not special.
In December, Ramos set the Spanish Primera Division record for red cards in a career after receiving his marching orders for the 19th time. This was not exactly a surprise. Ramos has earned 24 total red cards in his Real Madrid career, and has collected nearly 300 total bookings.
So it’s Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich and Liverpool vs. AS Roma in the Champions League draw for the semifinals on Friday. What immediately jump out are all the storylines and relationships between the two sets of semifinalists. But there’s more to this matchup than player links.
Sure, Bayern’s James Rodriguez is on loan from Real Madrid and Toni Kroos once plied his trade for the Bavarians. And yes, Salah transferred to Liverpool from Roma last summer.
Clearly Gianluigi Buffon is not the biggest fan of Michael Oliver right now. The English referee sent the Italian goalkeeper off at the end of extra time during the Juventus-Real Madrid Champions League match Wednesday, after Buffon vehemently disagreed with a penalty Oliver gave. Juventus were eliminated after Cristiano Ronaldo converted the penalty.
Here's what Buffon said after the match:
Four minutes and 32 seconds elapsed from the time referee Michael Oliver pointed to the spot to the moment the ball struck the back of the net from the force of another epic Cristiano Ronaldo penalty kick.