By Andrew Posadas
Champions League group play began this past Tuesday and continued throughout Wednesday. While there were many more competitive games today, most eyes found themselves on the reigning and defending European champion: Real Madrid.
Last year, it was the first team to win back to back Champions League titles since AC Milan of Italy did so in 1989-1990. This year, it will attempt to raise its third straight UCL trophy while joining rare company. There has only been one instance where a team has won the UCL three consecutive times. Bayern Munich of Germany can lay claim to that feat, having won three in a row from 1974-1977. Now the biggest storyline coming into this tournament is clear: can Real Madrid do something that hasn’t been done in 40 years?
As most soccer analysts concurred, Madrid was given the hardest group by far. Its group, Group H, also had two powerful teams in Tottenham of England and Borussia Dortmund of Germany. Luckily for the Whites, they drew the fourth team of the group this evening, the inexperienced APOEL Nicosia from Greece.
From the start, Madrid looked true to form and superior to its Greek counterpart on the pitch. Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the lineup after serving a three-week red card suspension in La Liga, Spain’s premier soccer league. Ronaldo showed no sign of rust as he was aggressive from the start. Madrid found the net in the 12th minute as Gareth Bale left a beautiful cross onto Ronaldo’s feet for an easy score. The star from Portugal would get another goal just before halftime on a penalty kick due to a handball. The Whites would put an exclamation point on this game in the second half, as captain Sergio Ramos wowed the crowd with a bicycle kick goal to complete the three-nil shutout. A dominant opening performance bodes well for the defending champs. However, the road only gets harder from here. They’ll need to carry this over against the likes of Tottenham and Dortmund, two teams who are proven world-class caliber opponents.
For now, Real Madrid has put the rest of the field on notice. It’s looking to chase and make history this year. Needless to say, the rest of the field will not be so reluctant to allow that to occur. All the major teams from Europe are here: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Juventus and of course, Madrid’s fiercest rival, Barcelona. Most consider Madrid to be a lock to win its respective group but once we enter the knockout stages, any one of the teams I have mentioned can put an end to Madrid’s aspirations of a three-peat. However, Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the best player in the world, has proven he can lead this team to a championship. It isn’t just him that the world should be worried about. Players like Ramos, Bale and the young star Marco Asensio give this team excellent balance. Now it’s up to the fans to decide: who are you taking? Real Madrid or the rest of Europe?
