Real seek tonic to poor season
Zizou’s team hopes Champions League dominance can help boost domestic campaign
MADRID: Real Madrid return to Champions League action with the visit of Roma on Tuesday needing to book their place in their quarterfinals to keep alive a hugely disappointing season.
A place in the last eight for a sixth consecutive season is well within the reach of Zinedine Zidane’s men with a comfortable 2-0 first-leg lead to rely on.
Yet, Madrid will have memories of this stage of the competition 12 months ago when Schalke had the 10-time champions clinging on in the final stages as the Germans won 4-3 at the Bernabeu.
Real’s home form this season has shown in equal measure the talent and frailties prevalent in their starstudded squad.
“We are still in the Champions League. It is a competition we aspire to win and it is not a coincidence that Real Madrid is the team that have won the most European Cups,” said Cristiano Ronaldo.
“Nothing is lost and we are going to continue working to achieve great things at the end of the season.”
Whether Madrid can achieve great things in the Champions League come Milan on May 28 will depend much on Ronaldo and could play a major role in the three-time World Player of the Year’s future at the club.
INJURED DRAXLER IN RACE TO FACE GENT BERLIN: Wolfsburg are waiting on the fitness of goalscoring Germany midfielder Julian Draxler for Tuesday’s Champions League last 16, second-leg clash at home to Gent.
Draxler netted twice in Wolfsburg’s 3-2 win in Belgium in the first leg and scored in both of the German Cup holders’ Bundesliga wins over Hanover 96 and Borussia Moenchengladbach last week.
Having netted the opener in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Gladbach, Draxler picked up a knee ligament injury, but he is desperate to play and help Wolfsburg reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.