Madrid down but not out

By Rafa García

The unthinkable is a reality. Real Madrid CF need to win their UEFA Champions League second group stage match against BV Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday if they are to have a realistic chance of retaining their title.

Madrid at the rear
Madrid coach Vicente del Bosque and his counterpart at Dortmund, Matthias Sammer, feel this game will hold the key to both sides' qualification hopes. Dortmund have three points from two matches in Group C, after a 2-1 triumph at FC Lokomotiv Moskva and a 1-0 defeat by AC Milan, while Madrid have just one point following their 1-0 defeat in Milan and a 2-2 home draw with Lokomotiv. Borussia are second in the group behind runaway leaders Milan, while Madrid are bringing up the rear.

Hierro out
Madrid now need to lay down a marker after six matches in a row without a Champions League win. Their last success was in the first group stage in September, a 6-0 win against KRC Genk, so the pressure is really on. Captain Fernando Hierro is the only absence from the home team's squad after he suffered a knee ligament injury in the match against Real Betis Balompié two weeks ago and will be out for two months.

'Nothing decided'
Worse still for Madrid is that they are coming off the back of an embarrassing 1-0 defeat by Club Atlético Osasuna on Sunday. Yet if Del Bosque is nervous he is certainly not showing it. "This is a key match," he said. "We want to defend our European title and we have to get a good result against Borussia. There is nothing decided in our group." Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos concurred, saying: "We have a team to reach the final in Old Trafford."

'We can win'
Sammer is also optimistic ahead of the game. "If things are OK we can win," he said. Otto Addo and Juan Ramón Fernández are out for the German team but, after winning 4-1 against VfL Bochum 1848 last Saturday in the 1. Bundesliga, Sammer knows his squad have the ability. He added: "Madrid are a team with very good players who can decide a match when they want. But they fail on a lot of occasions and we can have our chance. We won't change our system to play against Madrid."

German revenge
For Dortmund there is a touch of revenge about the tie. In the 1997/98 Champions League semi-finals, Madrid got past Dortmund with a 2-0 victory at the Santiago Bernabéu and a 0-0 draw at the Westfalenstadion. They went on to win the tournament, their seventh European Champions Clubs' Cup success.

Plenty of support
Borussia are expecting 2,300 supporters to travel to Madrid for the match. Although the teams will meet again next week in Germany, Dortmund's fans are hoping to have one foot in the quarter-finals after Wednesday's game. For supporters of Madrid, that really would be unthinkable.