Real Madrid built a strong and probably insurmountable lead in their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Borussia Dortmund with a comfortable 3-0 win at the Bernabeu. Dortmund, finalists in this competition last year, have had that their side decimated by injury and looked a shadow of their former selves.
Real wasted little time in exploiting this fact, with revenge for last year’s semi-final defeat in their minds, when Gareth Bale showed good feet to poke them ahead from close range in only the third minute. The visitors looked stunned and a period of Real dominance followed before they broke from a Dortmund corner to add a second throughIsco after 27 minutes. The young Spaniard, deputising for Angel Di Maria who was taken ill prior to kick-off, shoot low from the edge of the box to make it 2-0.
Real took their foot off the gas at the start of the second-half and allowed Dortmund a lot more time and space in which to attack them. But just as the visitors looked like they could build up a head of steam, Cristiano Ronaldo - on his 100th Champions League appearance - received a precise through ball from Luka Modric to finish tidily in the area.
Marco Reus, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang worked hard in attack for Dortmund and created plenty of opportunities to grab a vital away goal but couldn’t add the killer touch needed to beat Iker Casillas. The closest call came on the hour mark when Casillas spilt a Reus cross at the feet of Mkhitaryan, but Pepe was able to get a block in.
The tie seems all but over, but with Robert Lewandowski returning for the second leg Dortmund will still retain hope of turning things around.
