{"id":11711,"date":"2014-04-08T12:53:34","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T12:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=11711"},"modified":"2014-04-08T13:00:21","modified_gmt":"2014-04-08T13:00:21","slug":"dortmund-pray-for-miracle-against-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=11711","title":{"rendered":"Dortmund pray for miracle against Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Borussia Dortmund insist they have not given up hope of a Champions League miracle in Tuesday’s quarter-final, second-leg against Real Madrid, even with the Spaniards holding a 3-0 lead.<\/p>\n

World player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo is set to start after he was forced off with a slight knee problem towards the end of the first leg, having scored Real’s third goal, and was rested for Saturday’s 4-0 win away to Real Sociedad.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Portugal star trained with the Madrid squad on Sunday and looks set to travel to northern Germany.<\/p>\n

Real boss Carlo Ancelotti was delighted with how his side coped without Ronaldo as goals from Asier Illarramendi, Gareth Bale, Pepe and Alvaro Morata sealed a convincing victory at Sociedad.<\/p>\n

Madrid’s Italian manager was particularly pleased not to have picked up any more injuries.<\/p>\n

“This victory reinforces the team and, moreover, we avoided injuries and showed a good level physically,” he said.<\/p>\n

Angel di Maria is also expected to start at Dortmund after only appearing as a substitute against Sociedad.<\/p>\n

The Argentine also missed the first leg due to gastroenteritis and Fabio Coentrao will return at left-back after being rested at the weekend.<\/p>\n

– Lewandowski returns –<\/strong><\/p>\n

To progress, Dortmund must better their stunning 4-1 semi-final, first leg win at home to Real nearly 12 months ago when Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, who joins Bayern Munich next season, scored all four goals.<\/p>\n

A similar result would see the Germans bow out on away goals and they picked up a confidence boost with a 2-1 comeback win over Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Lewandowski, who was suspended for the first leg, scored Dortmund’s opening goal on Saturday and will be an obvious concern to the Real back four.<\/p>\n

Germany winger Marco Reus, who scored their 77th-minute winner against Wolves, said his side need to repeat Saturday’s impressive second-half display after a poor opening 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

“We have not given up (against Real),” said Reus.<\/p>\n

“If we play like we did (against Wolfsburg) in the first half, then it will be very difficult.<\/p>\n

“If we play as well as we did in the second, we honestly have a chance. It will be damn hard, but we’ll give it everything.”<\/p>\n

Dortmund will be without suspended defensive midfielder Sebastian Kehl, which leaves coach Jurgen Klopp without an obvious replacement with both Sven Bender and Ilkay Gundogan injured.<\/p>\n

Right-back Kevin Grosskreutz is set to prove his versatility once more with Klopp hinting he might switch the Germany international into the midfield.<\/p>\n

Dortmund are also set to welcome back goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller, who will take over the captain’s armband from Kehl, after the 33-year-old missed the Wolves win after injuring his arm in the defeat at Madrid.<\/p>\n

“We will not give anything away on Tuesday,” insisted Klopp, who has endured a horror run of injuries this season with both winger Jakub Blaszczykowski and Neven Subotic out with long-term knee problems.<\/p>\n

“We want to play two 45 minutes like we did in the second-half against Wolfsburg and then we’ll see how things stand.”<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0NDTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Borussia Dortmund insist they have not given up hope of a Champions League miracle in Tuesday’s quarter-final, second-leg against Real Madrid, even with the Spaniards holding a 3-0 lead. World player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo is set to start after he was forced off with a slight knee problem towards the end of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":11713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-11711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}