What is it?
The second leg of the Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, at the Bernabeu.
Real, who saw bitter rivals Barcelona take their domestic crown on Sunday, are well placed to lift the Champions League trophy for the fourth time in five years and take a 2-1 lead into tonight’s game.
Goals from Marcelo and Marco Asensio earned Real’s narrow comeback victory at the Allianz Arena last week in the first leg, after they had fallen behind to a strike from Joshua Kimmich.
Madrid are bidding to become the first team to reach the final three years in a row since Juventus in 1998.
When is it?
Tonight! Tuesday, May 1.
What time is kick-off?
7.45pm.
What TV channel is it on?
BT Sport 2 from 7pm.
What is the team news?
Real Madrid
Defender Nacho should be available having returned to training following injury, but play-maker Isco and full-back Dani Carvajal are doubts after sustaining problems last Wednesday in Bavaria.
Local media reports indicate winger Lucas Vazquez could be asked to deputise.
Bayern Munich
Bayern’s cause is not helped by injuries to key players Arjen Robben and Jerome Boateng.
The pair were forced off with problems during the initial meeting with Real and will be unavailable, although Javi Martinez and David Alaba, who have also had injury problems, have travelled.
What are they saying?
Zinedine Zidane says his future as Real Madrid coach does not depend on winning the Champions League for the third successive season:
“It’s independent of that. Today I’m the coach and I want to continue at this club.
“But it’s not important. What matters to everyone is thinking about the game and that’s it.
“The key for us is to go out to win the game. No need to take chances, to play on the back foot, nor to do anything strange.
“We’ve got to go out and get an early goal. It’s a semi-final and we know the importance of the game. We know what we have to do.”
Bayern boss Jupp Heynckes has defended top-scorer Robert Lewandowski following his lack of Champions League goals. Poland striker Lewandowski has registered 39 times in all competitions this season but failed to find the net in his last four European games:
“Lewy has my complete support. Every striker, including myself, has phases where they don’t score.
“But he has scored a lot of goals this season and you can’t forget that he once scored four goals against Real in the semi-final of the Champions League for Dortmund. So who knows what’ll happen.”
Heynckes has called on referee Cuneyt Cakir of Turkey to be “fair and just” in the face of pressure from Real Madrid and the Bernabeu crowd:
“We had him against Paris St Germain earlier this season and he did well. What I expect for him is to be objective, fair and just. I’m expecting a fair form of refereeing and I expect his decisions not to interfere with the outcome of the game.”
James Rodriguez guarantees revenge isn’t on his mind when Bayern face his former club:
“It’s beautiful to be able to return to a place that was my home for three years. They treated me very well here. It’s a place I always wanted to be. I spent three unique years here and I won many titles. I only have respect for the people here. I was happy here.
“I have absolutely nothing against (Zidane) or the club. I don’t have any feelings of anger toward him. I’m not going to try to win the match only because I’ll be playing against him. I just want to play well and help Bayern advance to the final. I want to play a good match, that’s it.”
Source: telegraph
