By AARON CRANFORD
Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez had been clamoring for a goal all night in Madrid, and his moment of glory finally came in the 87th minute, as Real Madrid took down their city rival.
With each of his shots just missing the target, the Mexico international visibly displayed his frustration, but he continued to grind down a sturdy Atletico Madrid defense until it finally cracked, sending Real through to the UEFA Champions League semifinals for the fifth consecutive year.
It didn’t help that Atleti was forced to play with 10 men, as Arda Turan’s challenge on Sergio Ramos was deemed to rough for the liking of Felix Brych, who sent the Atletico midfielder off in the 76th minute.
Over in France, Juventus entered their match knowing a 0-0 draw would see them through, and that’s the precise scoreline it achieved away from home in order to reach the UCL semifinals for the first time since 2003.
Monaco looked helpless going forward, especially late on, as substitute Dimitar Berbatov could not combine with anyone in the final third during the last 20-plus minutes of play. It was Juve who had the best chance late on, as Andrea Pirlo sizzled in an ambitious but knuckling free kick, which almost crept under the crossbar in the 90th minute.
Meanwhile, while Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t get his goal on the day after having a handful of chances to net, the Portuguese star showed why he is still one of the world’s best, making a strong run into the box before laying the ball off right into the wide-open path of Chicharito, who calmly passed it into the net.
With 1-0 aggregate wins, Real Madrid and Juventus will join Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the UCL semifinals, with the draw to determine pairings to be held on Friday, April 24.
I honestly thought Hernandez was poor. He had a few other chances he should have converted. His goal was virtually a tap-in. I also couldn’t agree more with T. Henry, who criticized Hernandez for his celebration.
yeah, he should’ve done better, but he got them through in the end, and that’s all that matters.
and what was wrong with his celebration? he was elated, and acted as such. he didn’t act like an @sshole *cough-ronaldo-cough*, and it was a really important goal for madrid, and for him personally.
if henry’s worried about ronaldo’s fragile little feelings, i’m sure chicharito eventually thanked ronaldo for the pass.
Hernandez had just fed Ronaldo an assist over the weekend vs Malaga & Ronaldo didn’t immediately turn around and celebrate with him. Henry’s comments were completely over his head and even the British Media is on him. Mind you this is coming from a player who used his hand to knock a team completely out of the World Cup in Qualifiers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/players/cristiano-ronaldo/11557215/Thierry-Henry-attack-on-Javier-Hernandez-was-churlish-sour-and-bad-punditry.html
I didn’t hear Henry’s comments but are you saying Henry should’ve gone to the ref in the France-Ireland playoff and say “I handled it, disallow the goal.” If so, can you name one time in history that’s happened?
Forza Juve, fino alla fine !!
Hernandez; he Is a dangerous striker. bit rusty at first and Atletico was overly physical around him but makes great runs and can finish. Side note: kinda funny watching him complaining to Ronaldo for not passing the ball after CR misses a shot..really?
Thankfully Gio dos Santos and Vela are not coming into the Gold Cup in great form.
or Raul Jimenez and Reyes. Herrera will be though and to some extent Guardado. although Reyes is playing regularly for the B squad.
Reyes doesn’t play for Porto B because he’s a full time member of Porto’s senior squad.
Much like the younger dos Santos brother when he was at Barca and he was handed a first team contract. In Spain and Portugal, once you have a first team contract, you can’t play for the B side.
dude, all you have to do is GOOGLE and you can get all his performance data. here you go:
http://www.transfermarkt.com/diego-reyes/leistungsdaten/spieler/131090
he dresses but does not, usually, play for Porto, so he gets his playing time with Porto B IF the game falls on a different day. at the end of 2014, he was pretty much exclusively playing with Porto B:
5 8/31/14 H FC Porto B (19.) CD Santa Clara Santa Clara (17.) 0:1 90′
7 9/17/14 H FC Porto B (22.) Clube Oriental Lissabon Oriental (15.) 1:0 90′
8 9/21/14 A FC Porto B (20.) SC Beira-Mar Beira-Mar (6.) 0:2 90′
10 10/5/14 H FC Porto B (18.) SC Olhanense Olhanense (11.) 7:0 CB 90′
12 10/26/14 H FC Porto B (9.) SC Freamunde Freamunde (1.) 2:0 90′
14 11/5/14 H FC Porto B (7.) CD Tondela Tondela (5.) 1:1 1′
then he didn’t but on 3/1/2015, he played for Porto B. since then, here is his full squad details:
24 3/6/15 not in the squad
25 3/15/15 on the bench
26 3/21/15 not in the squad
27 4/6/15 on the bench
28 4/11/15 on the bench
29 4/18/15 started & played 90′
so either your info is wrong about first team players not being allowed to play for the B squad, or Reyes signed a first team deal after 3/1/2015 (which didn’t happen). he signed a 5 year deal, no BS about full and reserve team. don’t believe me, here:
“Although he arrived in Primeira Liga in shape, former coach Paulo Fonseca hardly ever used the Mexican. Reyes’ activity was reduced to appearing with the B-team, and even then he didn’t get much playing time.”
this is why he was heavily rumored to be seeking a loan back in January…
Three (3) pks against Chicharito not called. Anyone saw that?
going a little crazy with the cheech-love, are we? i saw *maybe* one, but he sure didn’t help himself with all the over-acting.
Nope. And we also won’t see him in the lineup in the semis barring another round of injuries to better players.
Once again proving that money is the most important factore in success. Juve is barely in the top 10 so good on them, but the other 3 are 3 of the top 4 richest clubs. All you have to do is look at income/spending and you can pretty much predict the top few teams in any competition at this point.
Yes, the big three have the best players and real depth. Logically, they will win more games. Go watch North Korean league, only one man is rich over there.
I don’t think he was talking about quality of players. Money buys that, yes, but its hard to have quality players without having the funds to pay for said players
Why do you watch the North Korean league?
I don’t, I offered him an option if he did not want to see big teams with big players paid big money. Now, you go back to watching women’s soccer. The WC is around the corner.
I thought you were talking about big money clubs, not my watching preferences. Make up your mind.
Eh, you are right but the top 5 EPL teams spend more than Bayern. So its not everything.
Apparently what you really need is a Thomas Muller or a Messi.