Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo tonight broke a Champions League record hitherto held by Barcelona legend Xavi, after starting Los Blancos’ clash with BayernMunich.
Matchup
The two sides are currently locked in action at the Bernabeu in the second-leg of their Champions League semi-final tie, with Real holding a 2-1 advantage from last week’s first-leg at the Allianz Arena.
Goals from Marcelo and Marco Asensio cancelled out Joshua Kimmich’s early strike last Wednesday, with Real no doubt confident of their chances of advancing to yet another European final thanks to their two crucial away goals.
Teams
However, one major concern for Los Blancos ahead of tonight’s clash was the fitness of some of the club’s star men, with Dani Carvajal and Isco having both missed out due to respective hamstring and shoulder injuries.
Zinedine Zidane responded to his side’s injury woes by naming a surprising starting XI to take on Bayern, with Lucas Vazquez in at right-back to deputise for Carvajal, Marco Asensio having taken Isco’s place, Mateo Kovacic introduced in midfield in place of the benched Casemiro, and Karim Benzema recalled to lead the line for Los Merengues:
Bayern, meanwhile, have injury concerns of their own, as the problems picked up by Jerome Boateng and Arjen Robben during last week’s first-leg saw both ruled out for tonight, with Javi Martinez having also picked up a last-minute injury.
Corentin Tolisso replaced Martinez, while Thiago and Niklas Süle, both of whom were introduced off the bench last week, were handed starts.
David Alaba, though, handed the Bavarians a boost, with the Austrian stopper having returned to take his place at left-back:
Record-breaker
As a result of his start tonight, Real Madrid attacker Cristiano Ronaldo overtook former Barcelona midfielder Xavi in the history books of the Champions League, just the latest of an ever-growing list of record-breaking achievements for the mercurial Portuguese star:
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