MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid will find out their semi-final opponents on Friday as they continue their bid for a third straight Champions League title, with Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Roma the only remaining challengers to their crown.
Zinedine Zidane’s men came through one of the most dramatic European ties in recent memory to reach the last four as a last-gasp Ronaldo spot-kick finally saw off a valiant Juventus on Wednesday.
Friday’s draw will take place in Nyon at 1100 GMT.
Record 12-time European champions Real threw away a 3-0 first-leg lead at the Santiago Bernabeu, only for Ronaldo’s penalty in the eighth minute of injury-time to send them through in dramatic fashion as Juve great Gianluigi Buffon was sent off.
“It was a very long game and it serves as a lesson that in football nothing is guaranteed and that we have to fight until the end,” Ronaldo said.
“Step by step, now we’re into the semi-finals.”
It has been far from a comfortable road to the semis for Real after finishing second to Tottenham in their group before the Juventus scare, but that won’t bother the Spanish giants, who have never won the European Cup without losing a match.
Only three sides in history have won the competition three years or more in a row — Real from 1956-1960, Ajax from 1971-73 and Bayern Munich from 1974-76.
But Real are now three games away from becoming the first team to achieve the feat twice, having also lifted the trophy as recently as 2014.
Zidane will have some key decisions to make before the semi-final first leg in less than two weeks’ time, after hauling off Gareth Bale and Casemiro at half-time against Juve.
Bayern is in the pot for the sixth time in seven seasons after falling to Real in the quarter-finals last year, with fellow five-time champions Liverpool back in the semis for the first time since 2008.
But Roma is the real surprise package, after overturning a 4-1 first-leg deficit to stun Barcelona and end a 34-year wait for a semi-final spot dating back to their 1984 final loss on home soil to Liverpool.
After their famous fightback, Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco understandably says he’s confident of reaching the final in Kiev on May 26 no matter who his side draw.
“We must aim for Kiev,” Di Francesco said. “Why not believe in something even greater after such a match?
“If you come all this way and get to the semi-finals, why shouldn’t you believe in getting to the final in Kiev.”
