Real Madrid vs Tottenham Preview

The Champions League quarter-final and semi-final draw was held this afternoon, March 18, 2011 in Nyon, Switzerland. 

This draw set up four mouth-watering ties in the Champions League quarter-final, but the most exciting match-up would seem to be between Spanish giant Real Madrid and Tottenham Spurs. That is because Real Madrid reached at last eight for the first time in seven years, and also unexpectedly Spurs have been showing amazing performances. Needless to say, there are numerous world-class players in both sides like Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Oezil, Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon. In addition, it's showdown between flagships in top 2 soccer leagues so that this game would be, therefore, a sort of war for their league's pride. 


Spurs have been enjoying a huge amount of success in their inaugural season in Europe's flagship club competition, beating both sides from Milan on their way to the last eight of the tournament and now are full of confidence whereas they face their biggest test so far in the form of Jose Mourinho's star-studded squad.


The first leg will take place on Tuesday April 5 in Madrid, with White Hart Lane hosting the second leg on Wednesday April 13, and the winner of this clash will meet Barcelona or Shaktar at the semis.

Who do you think will go into the semi-final?

Real Madrid break a Champions League jinx lasting seven years!

In Madrid, Olympique Lyon's dominance of Real Madrid finally came to an end with a 3-0 loss. The French team had not lost to Real in seven earlier Champions League encounters, winning three and tying four. Lyon was the club that knocked Real out at the same stage last season.

Match Records between Real and Lyon

But on Wednesday night, after some early resistance by Lyon, Real Madrid finally found the way to end the jinx.

A dazzling goal by Brazilian left back Marcelo, who danced through the Lyon defense before firing a shot past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, showed the way.

That came in the 37th minute. Lyon hung tough for almost another half hour, knowing that a goal would tie the game and the series, the teams having played to a 1-1 tie in France in the first leg.

Then, in the 66th minute, former Lyon player Karim Benzema banged in his 20th goal of the season for Real Madrid and, 10 minutes later, Argentina's Angel Di Maria made it 3-0 to kill any chance of a Lyon comeback and clinch the round-of-16 series for Real, 4-1 on aggregate.

Defeating Lyon this day, Real keep their a 100 percent victory record at the Santiago Bernabeu this season.

This win also means Real Madrid are a step of closer to winning a record 10th European title, and keeps coach Jose Mourinho on course to conquer Europe with three different teams following his success with Porto and then inter Milan last year.

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