Champions League Roundup | Real Madrid ride on Ronaldo's hat-trick; Leicester City's campaign ends
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Leicester City's Champions League campaign came to a disappointing end despite putting up a spirited 1-1 home draw against Atletico Madrid. Meanwhile, riding on a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick, Real Madrid beat Bayern Munich in a controversial quarterfinal to make the semis for the 7th time in a row.
Leicester City 1 - 1 Atletico Madrid
The Foxes needed another two goals against Diego Simeone's side to enter CL semifinals but the tactical astuteness and disciplined defense of Atletico Madrid denied the Premier League champions. The hosts dominated the proceedings from the outset at the King Power Stadium but Atletico's Saul Niguez found the net in the 26th minute and this added to the Spanish team's one-goal advantage from the first leg in Madrid.
Trailing by three goals, the hosts needed their star players to fire in unison but Atletico's defense turned out difficult to breach. Jamie Vardy, though, struck in the 61st minute but the La Liga superpowers held on to end the Foxes’ campaign. in the league.Â
Leicester City manager Craig Shakespeare told BT Sport, "In the first half we played really well but the goal changes the game plan - we knew we had to score three - so I had to make the change. There's no discredit to lose to a team of that caliber. In terms of effort, commitment, application - as a group we were tremendous."
Real Madrid 4 - 2 Bayern Munich
Cristiano Ronaldo was once again the scourge of Bayern Munich as he hit a hat-trick to lead Real Madrid to a convincing 4-2 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu for a 6-3 victory on aggregate. Â Madrid
Although Madrid had more opportunities in the first half, it was Robert Lewandowski who opened the scoring for Munich in the 53rd minute from the spot after Arjen Robben won a controversial penalty off Casemiro.,
But Casemiro made amends by assisting Ronaldo’s equalizer with a cross in the 76th minute, only for Munich to regain the lead in the very next minute, thanks to an own goal from Sergio Ramos on his 100th CL appearance.
But Bayern’s hopes of completing a comeback were dealt a blow when Arturo Vidal was wrongly given a second yellow card for a legitimate challenge on Marco Asensio in the 84th minute and Ronaldo made things worse for the visitors by scoring his second goal from an offside position in the first period of extra time and then complete his hat-trick in the second period. Asensio then, added a fine late fourth goal, three minutes later.Â
