by Dan Gaichas
Bayern Munich’s quest for a treble took a massive hit as they fell to Real Madrid, 2-1, in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal. The loss ends a 16-match home win streak in Champions League play.
Robert Lewandowski missed the match with an injured shoulder, but Bayern still had plenty of firepower to choose from. One of those players was Arturo Vidal who headed Bayern into the lead on 25 minutes from a corner kick from Thiago. Vidal had two golden chances to add to the lead, but headed over the bar on 40 minutes and then skied a penalty kick over the crossbar before halftime after Daniel Carvajal was adjudged to have handled a shot despite replays showing that the ball went off his shoulder.
From that point on, it was the Cristiano Ronaldo show. Ronaldo equalized just two minutes into the second half off a cross from Carvajal to get a precious away goal. Just past the hour mark, Real got a precious man advantage when Javi Martinez was sent off for his second yellow card in a span of just three minutes. Real dominated and then the inevitable came in the 77th minute as Ronaldo scored his 100th goal in all European club competitions striking from a cross by Marco Asensio to give Real a 2-1 advantage to the Bernabeau in six days’ time.
Before that, Bayern take on Bayer Leverkusen at the BayArena Saturday at 11:30am CT on Fox.
