Madrid, May 14 (IANS) Real Madrid’s dream of becoming the first side to ever defend their Champions League title was shattered on Wednesday night by the man they didn’t want and sold to Juventus last summer.
Former Real Madrid striker, Alvaro Morata scored the goal which gave Juventus a 1-1 draw in the Santiagao Bernabeu Stadium and qualify them to play FC Barcelona in the final at his former side’s expense, Xinhua news agency reported.
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti made two surprise changes to his side, replacing Pepe with Rafael Varane and putting Karim Benzema straight into the side after the French striker had recovered from his knee injury.
The Frenchman had the first chance of the game as he controlled well inside the area only to fire wide on five minutes.
Ronaldo saw a free kick deflected just over five minutes later, although Juventus looked to be in control for the first 22 minutes, until James Rodriguez was caught in the Juventus area and the referee signalled penalty.
Ronaldo had missed a vital penalty at the weekend but this time made no mistake as he drove his shot into the middle of the Juventus goal.
Real Madrid were now ahead in the tie and they could have sealed their place in the final before the break as Gareth Bale, Sergio Ramos and Benzema all saw chances go wide, while Ronaldo wasted a great chance to have doubled Real’s lead on the break.
At the other end Juventus failed to create much other than a 14th minute shot from Arturo Vidal, which was well-saved by Iker Casillas.
They did score after 58 minutes, however, as Real Madrid failed to deal with a free kick from the right and Alvaro Morata was able to fire past Casillas from close to the penalty spot.
Ancelotti reacted by replacing the tiring Benzema with Javier Hernandez, who had scored the winning goal in the quarter-final, but with the 30 degree heat taking its toll on both sides Juve should have gone ahead only for Casillas to spectacularly deny Marchisio in a one on one save.
Real Madrid’s tactical shape had gone, but there was no doubting their spirit as they hurled everything forward looking for a goal to level the tie.
Bale headed over and James flashed a shot over the bar, but the best chance in the closing minutes fell to Juventus’ Paul Pogba, whose shot was saved by Casillas.
