Real Madrid and Manchester City played out a 0-0 draw at the Etihad on Tuesday night. Both sides had crucial players missing through injury and also lost players as the game wore on. City did well to keep a clean sheet in spite of Real Madrid dominating the game in the second half.
Here is how various pundits, players and managers reacted after yesterday’s match:
Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane was satisfied with his team’s performance:
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“I am happy with the game," said Zidane. "It was not easy but in the end, we defended really well. We had the ball more in the second half and we had more chances after the break. It was a tough game but I am happy with the result.
"Before this game, it was 50:50 and now it's the same. We have the second leg at home, but it's 50:50. We are going to have to work like we did today.
"It is a Champions League semi-final so nothing is easy, but I am happy with the result and the work the players did."
He also hoped that Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema would play the second leg.
"We hope that they can both be fit for the second leg, that's the idea," said Real head coach Zidane. "But we can't say right now. We have to see. We have to take it day by day and see how they are.
"Cristiano felt something after that last training session. That's why he didn't play. Karim, it was a little bit different. But at the end of the day, little by little, he felt a little bit worse in himself. We don't want to gamble with his fitness. We know how important both players are for us."
Real Madrid really missed Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portuguese superstar said that he would have tried to play if it was a Champions League final:
“The strain is still there. I'll wait for the next game. If it was a final, I'd give it a try.”
Gareth Bale took to twitter to express his feelings:
Toni Kroos remained quietly confident that they still had a good chance.
“Manchester City are a good team but we're playing at the Bernabéu and we believe we can win the tie. It doesn't matter who the favourite is. The winner will be in the final. Everyone knows we're good at home, we showed that in the quarters and we hope to do so again on Wednesday”.
Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos was also happy with the result.
“It's a really exciting tie. If you were given the option at the start of the season to be playing in front of your own fans to get into the Champions League final, you'd take it all day long. You have to win to get to the final”.
Real Madrid right-back Carvajal was hopeful of the support of fans in the second leg.
“With our fans driving us on, we will try and make it to Milan.”
Lucas Vasquez who replaced Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting line up was pleased with his team’s effort:
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini called Real Madrid the favourites but he said that his side did not have anything to fear at the Bernabeu.
"I don't think Real are favourites," Pellegrini said. "We are not afraid to go away to the Bernabeu."
“We trust in what we are going to do in Spain - the players believe in what we are doing and I am sure we will give everything we can in that game.
"Of course Real have the advantage of playing the second leg at home.
"But, when we are away, we play very similar to the way we do at home and this season we have already had very good results playing away at Sevilla, Dynamo Kiev and Paris St-German."
Manchester City’s Joe Hart put in a stunning performance last night and he was happy with his side’s display. Speaking to Manchester City’s official website, he said:
“We’re not disappointed. We’ve set it up for a good, old-fashioned rumble in the Bernabeu and we’re ready for it.
“We’ve got a brilliant squad and everyone is fit now. We’ve got an important game on Sunday which we’ll turn our focus too.”
Vincent Kompany felt that the result was a fair one.
City’s talisman Kun Aguero was bullish about his team’s chances.
Although both the teams were happy with the result, some of the fans and pundits were not happy with the 0-0 draw. Here is how one of them reacted on Twitter.
Former Arsenal player Emmanuel Frimpong had this to say about the game.
I think he summed up the game very well.
