April 24, 2015 by admin

Real Madrid, Juventus secure semifinal spot

Paris, Real Madrid and Juventus scraped their way into the Champions League semifinals, by beating Atletico Madrid and Monaco respectively in closely contested matches, joining already qualified Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
Defending champions Real edged city rivals Atletico 1-0 thanks to an 88th-minute winner from on-loan striker Javier Hernandez after a goalless first leg.
Juventus also made it to the last-four after a 0-0 draw in Monaco that allowed them to qualify courtesy of their 1-0 first leg win in Italy last week.
Bayern and Barcelona had made sure of their places on Tuesday leaving Friday’s semifinal draw to feature four teams with 21 European Cup triumphs between them.
The tie in Madrid was a repeat of last season’s final, won by Real 4-1 after extra-time, but Atletico had gone unbeaten in seven previous meetings against their city rivals this season. However, the visitors had to play the final 14 minutes with 10 men as Arda Turan was shown a second yellow card for a high challenge on Sergio Ramos.