Loss can’t prevent Madrid’s march to Champions semifinals

ISTANBUL, TURKEY — Real Madrid reached the Champions League semifinals for the third straight season on Tuesday despite losing 3-2 at Galatasaray following a second-half resurgence by the Turkish team.

Madrid needed a double from Cristiano Ronaldo to advance 5-3 on aggregate, but only after conceding three goals in a 16-minute span to raise Galatasaray’s hopes of pulling off what would have been a remarkable comeback.

In Tuesday’s other game, Borussia Dortmund completed a dramatic comeback by scoring twice in stoppage time to defeat Malaga 3-2 and advance to the semifinals for the first time in 15 years.

Trailing 2-1 as three minutes of added time began, Dortmund equalized through Marco Reus, but Malaga still held the away goals advantage. That all changed, however, when Felipe Santana scored from what looked to be an offside position following a goalmouth scramble in the last minute of play, setting off scenes of delirium among the local team and crowd.

Malaga owner Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani wrote on his Twitter account of his team’s elimination: “This is not football, but racism and clear of all.”

Ronaldo looked to have wrapped up the quarter-final series by scoring in the seventh minute for a 4-0 overall lead, requiring Galatasaray to score at least five goals to advance.

The Portugal forward scored again in stoppage time for his 48th goal — including a competition-high 11 in the Champions League — in 47 matches this season. But only after Galatasaray came alive following Emmanuel Eboue’s 57th-minute leveller.

Galatasaray forward Wesley Sneijder scored in the 71st, before Didier Drogba added another goal a minute later. Both previously played under Madrid coach Jose Mourinho — Sneijder at Inter Milan, Drogba at Chelsea.

Madrid was hanging on at this stage as the crowd, whipped up into a fervour, urged Galatasaray on.

“During a few minutes, the tie was open when it shouldn’t have been after we had gone ahead,” said Mourinho. “But when they play with this passion, and not just with 11 but with 50,000, anything is possible.”

Madrid right back Alvaro Arbeloa was sent off in injury time after being booked twice.

It will be Madrid’s 24th semifinal appearance in Europe’s top-tier club competition, although the team has been eliminated at that stage the past two years. It will be the fourth straight year Mourinho has reached the final four, having led Inter to the title in 2010.

Madrid completely dominated the match until Eboue’s equalizer, which awakened Galatasaray’s attack and transformed the match from a placid stroll to a frantic contest largely staged in Madrid’s last third.

“We’re happy for the classification, mission complete,” Ronaldo said.