Real Madrid’s Champions League bout against Schalke may not have been pretty, but the La Liga leaders were able to squeak through to the next round thanks to the wonderful world of aggregate scoring. That means, despite Tuesday’s upset by the Bundesliga underdogs, Cristiano Ronaldo and his squad still managed to advance. Real won the round’s first game, 2-0, which gave them a cushion going into Tuesday’s match, so when the team lost, 4-3, the aggregate math came out to 5-4 on Real’s side.
That’s largely thanks to Ronaldo’s head. Literally, the 30-year-old superstar used his noggin to equalize twice by tapping in two spectacular headers, first at minute 24 and later at minute 40.
For about five minutes in the second half, teammate Karim Benzema put Real up 3-2, but Schalke would quickly equalize and later get off the winning goal thanks to Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, whose two goals helped the Bundesliga team win Tuesday’s battle. Unfortunately for them, however, Schalke couldn’t win the war. Real Madrid will advance to the Champions League quarterfinals. The team will find out who it has to face on March 20, when the quarterfinals draw is held.
Marissa Payne writes for The Early Lead, a fast-breaking sports blog, where she focuses on what she calls the “cultural anthropological” side of sports, aka “mostly the fun stuff.” She is also an avid WWE fan.
No comments:
Post a Comment