Real Madrid defeated Galatasaray by 3-0 in the Champions League quarterfinal first leg match at the Santiago Bernabeu. With this, the winner took a giant step forwards towards the semi-finals for the third consecutive year.
Cristiano Ronaldo sent the hosts off to a perfect beginning as he gradually chipped home from Mesut Ozil's fantastic through ball after just nine minutes. Karim Benzema then enhanced Madrid’s success within 29 minutes with a simple finish at the back post from Michael Essien's cross. Meanwhile, Gonzalo Higuain headed home in the third 17 minutes from time to seal a great successful evening for the hosts.
During the match, Galatasaray manager Fatih Terim expressed his desire to attack by mentioning the names of the trio Didier Drogba, Wesley Sneijder, Burak Yilmaz in his starting line-up. As a result the Turkish champions did their best for Madrid to create in midfield, with Ozil in especially shining in the first-half.
The German international established the opener as he received Xabi Alonso's pass following turning and feeding Ronaldo to escape the ball over the advancing Fernando Muslera for his ninth Champions League goal of the campaign. Drogba immediately replied the visitors as he spun Raphael Varane on the edge of the box, but with an apparent sight of goal the Ivorian flashed wildly towards the target. Sneijder also shot wide from a distance of 20 yards while Galatasaray went in search of the away goal. This incident opened up gaps that Madrid liked to exploit on the counter-attack. Ozil pushed Muslera into a good low save from a sprightly break.
Drogba did hit the target with another long-range shot that Diego Lopez missed. Galatasaray had a good chance of penalty turned down when Sami Khedira came into view to play inside his own area. In fact they were still battling to cope at the back and went further beyond when Essien's cross just escaped Ronaldo but fell ideally for Benzema to shoot in off the near post.
Emmanuel Eboue had a great opportunity to give Terim's men a lifeline just before half-time as he plunged into the goal after a clear exchange of passes with Drogba, but the former Arsenal defender kicked his shot too close to Lopez, who made a cosy save. May be after recognising the error of his ways to commence the game, Terim replaced Sneijder with Gokhan Zan at the interval.
The change to a 5-3-2 formation allowed the visitors to increase Madrid attacks in the second half, but the Spanish champions should have scored a third goal when Angel Di Maria was found by another grand Ozil pass only for the Argentine to hit meekly into Muslera's arms. The tie was practically destroyed off by a third Madrid goal 17 minutes from time as substitute Higuain glanced home Alonso's in-swinging free-kick. Finally Galatasaray's night was added up when Yilmaz saw a yellow card for diving when he was confronted by Sergio Ramos, this means that he will currently miss the return-leg on Tuesday.
