{"id":2733,"date":"2013-04-04T06:20:23","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T06:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/?p=2733"},"modified":"2013-04-04T06:20:23","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T06:20:23","slug":"champions-league-round-up-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/champions-league-round-up-2-2733\/","title":{"rendered":"Champions League round-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/mario-gotze-50.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-2734\" alt=\"Mario Gotze missed a glut of chances in Dortmund's 0-0 draw with Malaga\" src=\"http:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/mario-gotze-50.jpg\" width=\"355\" height=\"244\" \/><\/a>The second night of Champions League quarter-final first leg clashes produced contrasting games.<\/p>\n<p>In Spain Real Madrid took a massive step into the semi-finals with a 3-0 victory over Galatasaray at the Santiago Bernabeu.<\/p>\n<p>Los Blancos enjoyed a comfortable night and took the lead on nine minutes. Germany international Mesut Ozil fed Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portuguese superstar dinked the ball over Gala keeper Fernando Muslera.<\/p>\n<p>The Turkish side then had two efforts on goal, as Diego Lopez saved a Didier Drogba shot and Emmanuel Eboue shot straight at the Real keeper when through on-goal. Real doubled their lead on 29 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Essien fired a cross into the box and Karim Benzema controlled before firing past Muslera. The visitors took Wesley Sneijder off at half-time and the substitution effectively ended Galatasaray\u2019s threat going forward.<\/p>\n<p>Real secured victory with a third goal on 73 minutes, as Gonzalo Higuain headed home from a Xabi Alonso corner kick. Galatasaray had striker Burak Yilmaz booked for a dive when Sergio Ramos appeared to step on his foot.<\/p>\n<p>The decision was a harsh one and Ramos himself was booked for kicking the ball away in the dying minutes and will miss the second leg. The tie now looks won and it will be difficult for the Turkish side to progress.<\/p>\n<p>Real\u2019s compatriots Malaga drew 0-0 with reigning German champions Dortmund at La Rosaleda. Dortmund was guilty of profligacy in front of goal. Their first gilt-edged fell to Mario Gotze on 14 minutes as the youngster was denied by Willy Caballero when through on-goal.<\/p>\n<p>The Malaga denied Gotze again five minutes later. Striker Robert Lewandowski then mis-kicked just 12 yards out. Gotze again fired wide on 65 minutes and highly-rated youngster Isco had the best chance for the home side saved by Roman Weidenfeller in the Dortmund goal.<\/p>\n<p>The away side may regret all the missed opportunities if they don\u2019t go through to the semi-finals after the second leg.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Will Dortmund overcome Malaga to progress into the semi-finals?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The second night of Champions League quarter-final first leg clashes produced contrasting games. In Spain Real Madrid took a massive step into the semi-finals with a 3-0 victory over Galatasaray at the Santiago Bernabeu. Los Blancos enjoyed a comfortable night [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[1558,566,299,488,737,780,642,240,438,34,550,81],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2736,"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733\/revisions\/2736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballcosmos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}