RONALDO IS KEPT QUIET FOR ONCE... BUT REAL STILL HOLD ALL THE ACES
The lethal weapon called Mo is the one on their minds. ‘Sim-Salah-Bim’ — ‘Abracadabra’ — proclaimed a huge headline here yesterday.
The stadium TV screens were also absorbed with what Liverpool’s gem might do in Kiev as the clock counted down to kick-off last night.
The egyptian and his swashbuckling team are insurgents on the continental ramparts, while last night’s opponents — 17 times european Cups lifted between them, with the Spaniards chasing this trophy for a third consecutive year — are the establishment figures, the emperors of the continent.
On the evidence of this aristocratic clash, the walls just might come tumbling down, if Liverpool can make the next step on Wednesday.
It looks like a meeting with Cristiano Ronaldo and Co, after goals either side of half-time snuffed out the early hopes of a German side who squandered 12 attempts on goal.
That would mean the presence of a pathological winner in Ukraine: Ronaldo has now won 96 Champions League ties, more than anyone else. And more of that legendary refusal to yield in
pursuit of a trophy which they have come to view as their entitlement.
Sergio Ramos was virtually centre-back and goalkeeper by the end here, marshalling a side who yet again won without deserving to.
Ramos said: ‘We’ve taken the first step. We were really solid and defended very well.’
But there are chinks of light if Liverpool meet them. Real had conceded as many goals as Roma before this match and it showed. They did not display much spark. After all that had gone before the night before at Anfield, this felt anaemic and old school.
Briefly, there was German electricity. The five men posted in front of Javi Martinez were all of an attacking disposition and they began as if this was
their last match on earth, spooking Dani Carvajal into two elementary early errors. But they could not maintain what they had started. Barely half an hour had gone before Arjen Robben and Jerome Boateng had limped out. Bayern captain Thomas Muller admitted: ‘I don’t know how we managed this. ‘We compensated well after the early injuries (to Robben and Boateng) and we were really good. But we were too naive and we did not make the chances we got, we just did not do it tonight. ‘how Real did this is their thing but we played our part in that.’ Robben went off after eight minutes
and Boateng followed soon afterwith a suspected adductor muscle injury.
‘We had a lot of really good chances and in the Bundesliga we usually just say thank you,’ added Muller.
‘here, maybe the importance of the game played a part. It hurts but it shows there is still some things to do in the second leg.’
Real offered even less in the first half. ‘We started bad,’ admitted boss Zinedine Zidane. ‘The tie is far from over. It’s more than possible that Bayern could win in the Bernabeu.’
Ronaldo (left), whose hopes of a record-breaking goal in every tie of a Champions League tournament have gone, received little supply.
his side’s set-piece defending was questionable, as was goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
The opener was appropriately untidy. Marcelo chased after a ball Ronaldo had headed wide,
failed to keep it in play and while he wandered off to reclaim it, goalkeeper Sven Ulreich had the presence of mind to collect a new one and send it into play.
The Brazilian defender was ambling back as Bayern built a rapier move down the right flank. It concluded with James Rodriguez measuring a pass which Joshua Kimmich fired beyond Navas, who should have done better.
The Germans were just as feckless when the equaliser went in, moments before the break. Ronaldo made to bicycle-kick a ball and the entire home defence seemed transfixed by his presence as the ball ran on to Marcelo, who fired in from the edge of the area.
Into the second half and Bayern’s Rafinha committed another cardinal sin, playing a loose ball in central midfield directly to substitute Marco Asensio, who exchanged passes
with Lucas Vazquez and clipped the return ball over Ulreich.
Jupp heynckes’s side missed a raft of further chances.
‘We weren’t clinical enough,’ the Bayern boss admitted.
Their hopes were extinguished when Robert Lewandowski, through on goal, tried a Salah clip but got his angles wrong. There was something quite fitting about that.
The tie is far from over. Bayern could still win in the Bernabeu