Wolfsburg’s unreal Real Madrid with two goals in seven minutes

Wolfsburg stunned Real Madrid with two goals in seven first-half minutes to take control of their Champions League quarter-final. The Spanish side, 10-time winners of the competition, face an uphill task to progress to the last four.

Real’s Keylor Navas had not conceded in this competition before but he was beaten by an 18th-minute penalty from Ricardo Rodríguez before Maximilian Arnold doubled the advantage seven minutes later.

Four days on from a 2-1 win over Barcelona at the Camp Nou with 10 men, Zinedine Zidane’s side, shaky at the back, have it all to do in the return leg next Tuesday.


There were early hints this would not be a straightforward match for real when, 70 seconds in, Cristiano Ronaldo was flagged for a marginal offside call after he collected Karim Benzema’s pass and turned home. Moments later Gareth Bale was denied what appeared a clear penalty after Luiz Gustavo clattered into his leg inside the area.

By this stage Real should have led anyway through Benzema who, having returned to the pitch following treatment, moved beyond Dante before finding the leg of Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio with his shot.

Wolfsburg were a threat on the counter and after Bruno Henrique had headed straight at Navas, the Real keeper finally conceded after 738 minutes in the Champions League when Rodríguez sent him the wrong way from 12 yards out.

The penalty call was debatable as André Schürrle appeared to kick his own foot as he swung his leg past Casemiro, who was caught on the wrong side of the former Chelsea forward.

Seven minutes later it was 2-0, Julian Draxler finding Henrique in space and from his cross Arnold stole a march on Sergio Ramos and finished first-time past Navas. Benzema then headed wide before injury eventually forced him off, Toni Kroos drew Benaglio into a save and Bale planted a 25-yard free-kick over his crossbar of the stroke of half-time.

Zidane’s side pushed for an away goal after the interval and Ronaldo missed the target with two attempts from Bale crosses. They almost found themselves three goals down as Schürrle took up the space once again left vacant by Marcelo, but, after taking a touch, he fired over. Marcelo’s frustration was evident when he kicked out at Arnold before comically falling to the ground after placing his head in the goalscorer’s chest, with only the victim and Bale booked in the subsequent skirmish.

Ronaldo was thwarted again by Benaglio after Isco had threaded a pass through with the outside of his boot, while Navas pushed away from Max Kruse at the other end to ensure the task facing Real in the second leg did not become even more difficult.