Friday 15 April 2011

Football: Gomes error gives Real win

Heurelho Gomes tries in vain to prevent the ball crossing the line as Real Madrid secured their last four place.Heurelho Gomes tries in vain to prevent the ball crossing the line as Real Madrid secured their last four place.Real Madrid win 1-0 at Tottenham to reach semifinals of the Champions LeagueAn error from Brazilian goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes enough to give Real victoryBrazilian allows a Cristiano Ronaldo shot to trickle through his fingersReal will now face Barcelona in a mouth-watering semifinal showdown

(CNN) -- An error from Brazilian goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes saw Real Madrid win 1-0 at Tottenham on Wednesday to reach the semifinals of the Champions League 5-0 on aggregate.

Gomes allowed a second-half shot from Cristiano Ronaldo to slip through his fingers and crawl over the goalline to ensure the Spanish side secured a mouth- watering last four showdown with bitter rivals Barcelona.

Jose Mourinho's side held a comfortable lead from the first leg at the Bernabeu but, despite that advantage, the Real Madrid coach still decided to play his strongest side at White Hart Lane.

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And the visitors had to hold on in the first 45 minutes as Tottenham had two good penalty appeals turned down, while Gareth Bale had the ball in the Madrid net, but his goal was ruled out for offside.

However, just five minutes into the second half, the tie ended when Ronaldo attempted a strike from 25 yards out that Gomes should have dealt with comfortably, only for the keeper to fumble the shot into the net.

Ramon Pavlyuchenko nearly levelled for Spurs from Rafael Van der Vaart's cross and defender William Gallas hit the post from close range, but Real were never in danger of losing their advantage.

The result means that Barcelona and Real Madrid will now clash four times in just 18 days in what will be a monumental series of 'El Clasico' encounters.

First the teams meet this weekend at the Bernabeu in La Liga, before they face each other four days later in the Spanish Cup final in Valencia prior to their two Champions League showdowns.

Mourinho -- who is the first coach to ever lead four different teams to the Champions League semifinals -- told ITV Sport: "Anything can happen in a semifinal, but we have two other matches to come against Barcelona before then and must concentrate on those games first."


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