Real need triumph to salvage poor season

In suffocating August heat at the start of the season Real Madrid stayed ice cool to crush Barcelona 5-1 on aggregate in the Spanish Super Cup.
It was a show of force from Spain’s dominant side, the double winners exerting their power over Barcelona and leaving their arch-rivals on the verge of crisis.
New Barca coach Ernesto Valverde looked on helplessly as Brazilian forward Neymar joined Paris St Germain and Real looked unstoppable.
“It’s the first time we’ve felt Madrid are superior,” Barca defender Gerard Pique said after the game.
But as the months passed, it became clear that Real were not capable of defending their league title as Barcelona surged clear at the top of the standings.
Madrid’s league hopes lay in tatters by December, the Catalans raiding the Santiago Bernabeu with a 3-0 win in the Christmas Clasico and moving 14 points of Zinedine Zidane’s team.
Real were dumped out of the King’s Cup in January on away goals by unheralded Leganes and Barcelona went on to win that trophy for the fourth season in a row. That was the first step towards a near-certain double for Barcelona, who need one point in their remaining five games to wrest the title back from Real.
Real will ease the pain by retaining their Champions League title, their only hope of salvaging a disappointing season.
They face Bayern Munich in the semi-finals as they bid to win it for a third season running, having last season become the first side to retain the trophy by beating Juventus in the final.
The German champions, however, are desperate for revenge after they were eliminated 6-3 on aggregate at the quarter-final stage by Zidane’s side last season in controversial circumstances.
“You need a better referee for a quarter-final,” complained then Bayern coach Carlo Ancelotti after his team had two men sent off over the two legs and Real scored goals from offside positions.
“We’re working hard and, if we’ve done it twice, why wouldn’t we go for that third consecutive Champions League?,” Real defender Dani Carvajal said ahead of tomorrow’s first leg in Munich.
It would not be the first time Real’s season has been salvaged by a European triumph.
In 2016 they lifted the trophy after Barcelona won the double and in 1998 they triumphed after finishing fifth in La Liga.

Only as a team can Bayern stop Ronaldo - Boateng
Jerome Boateng says only a defensive team effort can prevent Cristiano Ronaldo adding to his mind-blowing tally of nine goals in six games against Bayern Munich tomorrow.
Bayern host Real in a blockbuster Champions League semi-final, first-leg, at the Allianz Arena with Ronaldo in goal-scoring form. The Portugal superstar has scored 15 goals in the Champions League this season, hitting the net in each of Real’s ten games in Europe.
“We can only stop Cristiano Ronaldo as a team,” Bayern centre-back Boateng told German magazine Kicker.
“In front of goal, he’s like a machine.
“You can’t shut him out completely, he always gets his chances in a game, because of the lines he runs and his excellent timing.
“Real base their game around him and it’s important we give him as little room as possible.”
Ronaldo was at his lethal best when Real beat Bayern 6-3 on aggregate in last season’s quarter-finals – scoring five of their goals.
He hit two second-half goals as Real came from behind to win 2-1 in Munich, then bagged a hat-trick in a 4-2 extra-time win in Madrid. That came after he scored twice in Munich in the 2014 semi-final 4-0 rout of Bayern and hit two more against the Bavarians in the 2012 semis.
“There is a no more complete striker than Ronaldo. Left foot, right foot, header - he is in perfect control of everything he does,” said Boateng.
In his six Champions League knock-out games for Bayern against Ronaldo’s Real, Boateng has lost five of them.
His only success was a 2-1 win in Munich in the 2012 semi-finals when Bayern later progressed by winning a penalty shoot-out in Madrid after losing 2-1 in the second-leg.
“I went through only once against him with Bayern, but twice we have gone out,” said Boateng. “He also has the best team-mates at Real.
“Shutting him out is only 50 percent of it, the other players are simply too good for that at this level.”