MADRID — Real Madrid stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema were both included in coach Zinedine Zidane’s squad for their Champions League semifinal, first leg at Manchester City Tuesday despite fitness doubts.
Three-time World Player of the Year Ronaldo missed Saturday’s 3-2 win at Rayo Vallecano with a minor thigh injury, but is expected to start on his return to Manchester, where he spent six years with Manchester United between 2003 and 2009.
Benzema is a bigger doubt after limping off with a knee injury before half-time at Rayo.
Right-back Dani Carvajal also returns after two games out as Zidane has called-up all 23 available players for the trip to the Etihad.
Gareth Bale was Real’s hero as he scored twice to turn around a 2-0 deficit at Rayo.
And the Welshman — who returns to England for the first time since leaving Tottenham Hotspur three years ago — believes home advantage in the second leg gives Madrid the edge to reach a 14th European Cup final.
“I think that the most important thing is to score away from home,” he told the club’s website. “At the Santiago Bernabeu we are very strong and obviously we’ll have a lot of chances.
“Playing the second leg at home is important psychologically. If we get a good result in the Etihad Stadium, back at the Bernabeu our fans are always going to help us.
“A win is always a good result, but as long as we don’t lose there, we’ll be very confident at the Bernabeu.”
Until this season Manchester City’s progression in the Champions League could be measured in baby steps but Tuesday it can make a huge leap forward when it hosts Real Madrid in its first European semifinal for 45 years.
The Abu Dhabi-backed English club has already broken new ground this season, moving past the last 16 stage that proved its limit for the past two seasons having failed even to survive the group stage prior to that.
In seeing off Paris St Germain, which has similar financial muscle, in the quarterfinals it delivered a powerful statement of intent to reach its first semifinal since a European Cup Winners’ Cup defeat by Chelsea in 1971.
It also kept alive the intriguing possibility of a Milan final against Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich, whose manager Pep Guardiola will take over the Manchester City hot seat from former Real Madrid manager Manuel Pellegrini next season.
First, however, City’s defence must find a way of keeping Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema quiet at Etihad Stadium so as to arrive at its opponents’ Santiago Bernabeu fortress with something tangible to hang on to. — Agencies
