With a little over half an hour to go at Old Trafford, Real
Madrid were a goal down on aggregate, being dominated in all areas, and not
very far from heading straight out of the Champions League; A few days later
and they were arguably the only ‘winners’ from one of the most competitive
quarter final draws of the recent era.
Now that’s doing tonight’s opponents Galatasaray a
disservice, as there’s plenty to recommend them and their statistics in getting
this far match upto any of the teams left in the competition. A trip to the
Bernabeu is one of the toughest assignments in world football but it’s a very
positive start that the Turks have only lost one of their previous 13 league
and European away games – including fixtures at Schlake and Braga – while they
were also desperately unlucky 1-0 losers at Manchester United earlier in the
campaign, hitting the woodwork twice, being denied a stonewall penalty (along
with a very strong shout late in the day) and also being denied by a classic
David De Gea double save.
When taking into account the fact that Manchester United
held Real Madrid at the Bernabeu Galatasaray look hugely underrated, but Real
Madrid were hugely unlucky not to win that game – David De Gea had his game of
the season and they had 11 shots on target to United’s three – and Madrid
hadn’t failed to win a game since before their 1-1 draw in preparation against
Zaragoza at the weekend, in a game where the preferred midfield trio of Xabi
Alonso, Ozil, and Sami Khedira were all
rested in a game which could easily have gone the way of Real Madrid with more
luck and given how much urgency Mouriniho’s men have dedicated towards winning
a 10th Champions League this season, it’s more than fair to expect
Madrid to go gunning for thing from the first whistle.
Los Blancos are no value tonight, but it looks a certainty
that there will be goals – Madrid have scored 18 goals so far in the Champions
League but in all 11 of their champions home games during the last year Madrid
have failed to keep a clean sheet and the 31/20 on Madrid to win while
conceding appeals; Over 3.5 goals is also an option worth keeping onside given
how frequent goals have been in Madrid games this season. Of more interest
however, is the option for Madrid to score 3 or more goals at 8/11 with Stan
James; Given their patchy away form there will be every pressure upon Madrid to
go for it and build up a healthy lead to take to Turkey and they scored 9 goals
in their three home group games.
Advice
1 pt Madrid to score 3 or more goals (8/11 Stan James)
1 pt Both teams to score and Madrid to win (31/20 Ladbrokes)
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