While Jose schooled a couple of his former pupils in Madrid, up the road in Malaga, Dortmund were more wasteful than a Dublin water pipe.
Night two of the footballing feast the Champions League served up to us this week may have looked less appealing than the first but it turned out to be just as good.
The glamour game was the clash of Real Madrid and Galatasaray in the Spanish capital. Billed as the meeting of Jose Mourinho and a few of his former charges such as Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder, the game never really caught fire.
Looking at the stats it seemed even enough with possession damn near 50/50 and Real only just edged the shot tally 15 to 14.
But the reality was that the home team were in control from very early on when a wonderful Mesut Ozil pass (not quite as good as Dani Alves’ the night before but it was close) was expertly finished by Cristiano Ronaldo’s left peg. That came after nine minutes and Galatasaray just left themselves too open all night to Madrid’s many expert passers.
Xabi Alonso was probably the best of them, spraying passes about the place in the manner that would make a Liverpool fan weep. As for Emmanuel Eboue, his display was one to make Arsenal fans glad he was no longer togging out for them.
Going forward the Ivorian was excellent, and he had probably the best chance of the first half for the Turkish side, but he shot right at Lopez. However, defensively he was as inattentive as ever and the second goal, by Karim Benzema, was down to bad Gala defending, with Eboue the chief culprit.
Drogba had a few flashes at goal but Sneijder was invisible – he was taken off at half-time – and Mourinho’s side were deserving of a third when Gonzalo Higuain, untroubled by any defenders, nodded home an Alonso free-kick in the second half.
A couple of handy yellow cards for Sergio Ramos and Alonso (surely a mere coincidence) mean they will miss the second leg but this tie is all but over. Just as Jose would have wanted. Master 3 Pupils 0.
However, the return leg of Malaga/Dortmund is probably the game of the week next week in Germany. Many, myself included, thought that Dortmund would come away from their Spanish trip with a couple of goals in their back pocket. They certainly created enough chances to do so but they fluffed them all.
Some of the credit for the Malaga clean sheet must go to stopper Willy Cabalerro, who had a stormer between the posts, but Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski contrived to screw up gilt-edged chance after gilt-edged chance.
That wastefulness almost cost them big time as first Goetze had to head a goal-bound Malaga effort off the line and then an Isco rasper was very well saved by Roman Weidenfeller.
On balance a draw was probably fair as Malaga looked very composed for long periods even though the Germans made more opportunities. Dortmund probably fancy nicking at least one at home but with players like Isco and Joaquin in their side, Malaga will believe they can score at Westfalenstadion next Tuesday night.
Three Spanish teams in the final four? I wouldn’t bet against it based on what we saw this week.
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