Real Madrid produced a dominant performance to win Borussia Mönchengladbach and qualify for the next round of this year’s UCL.
The Madrid club were in danger of dropping into the Europa League spot heading into this tie, following a disastrous run in their first five games of the group stages. But they produced a winning performance on Wednesday night to shame their doubters and seal the top spot in the group with a 2-0 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Two first-half goals from French striker Karim Benzema was all Madrid needed to book their place in the last 16 of the Champions League, as Zidane avoided an unwanted history of being the first Madrid coach to be knocked out of the group stage.
The home team came out flying from the off and were ahead in just nine minutes with Lucas Vasquez picking out Benzema to score past Yann Sommer and hand his side the psychological advantage.
The away side nearly levelled matters almost immediately, only for Thuram to shoot straight at Courtois.
The away side grew into the game and continued to press for a leveller and could have equalised when Alassane Plea was sent through on goal by Florian Nucuhaus, only to shoot wide of the right-hand post.
Gladbach’s miss was Madrid’s gain as the 13-times European Champions doubled their lead shortly after in the 30th minute with Benzema again finding the back of the net after being set up by a sumptuous cross this time from Rodrygo.
Madrid could have made it three before the break, but Yann Sommer’s finger-tip save was able to deny Modric a certain goal.
The game continued to flow at a fast pace with Madrid the better side. The home side kept asking questions of the visiting keeper, with the keeper required to make a series of saves
from Kroos, and captain Sergio Ramos to keep the scoreline respectable.
In the end, the two goals were enough to hand Madrid top spot in the group and perhaps also hand Zidane some much-needed reprieve from scrutiny.
Madrid face Atletico Madrid for the Madrid derby in the weekend while Mönchengladbach plays Hertha Berlin in the German Bundesliga.
