Vucinic bravely dived for a Christian Panucci - Roma win Real lose
Real Madrid: Casillas, Salgado (Miguel Torres 65), Pepe, Cannavaro, Heinze, Diarra (Drenthe 61), Gago, Guti, Julio Baptista (Soldado 85), Raul, Robinho.
Subs Not Used: Dudek, Marcelo, Higuain, Balboa.
Sent Off: Pepe (71).
Booked: Heinze, Pepe, Robinho, Guti.
Goals: Raul 75.
Roma: Doni, Cicinho (Panucci 87), Juan, Mexes, Tonetto, Aquilani, De Rossi, Taddei, Perrotta (Pizarro 77), Mancini (Vucinic 65), Totti.
Subs Not Used: Bertagnoli, Giuly, Ferrari, Brighi.
Booked: Taddei, De Rossi, Perrotta, Cicinho, Aquilani, Tonetto.
Goals: Taddei 73, Vucinic 90.
Att: 80,000.
Ref: Kyros Vassaras (Greece).
Similar to Milan, Real have a lot of injury problems this season. Robben got injured last weekend joining van Nistelroy and Drenthe and Sneijder and Metzelder are long out of the pitch. But regardless of that Schuster’s players are leaders of Primera form the first round and they didn’t have many troubles reaching the Champions League knock-out stage this season. The draw was favourable for them since they were paired with Roma against who they had a lot of success in the past. A defeat at Olimpico was the first after three successive wins and 2:1 score as well as the home ground makes them favourites. They managed to beat Huelva away on Saturday, the lead over their first runner-up in Primera is five points and this definitely booted Real’s confidence. Robinho and defender Pepe are back which will be a great advantage for Madrid side defense since Ramos is suspended for this match.
Real, needing to get a goal to avoid elimination, started to step up their efforts midway through the second half.
Raul saw his header just miss its target shortly before the hour but, with them pushing forward, Real were also leaving gaps at the back.
Vucinic came on in place of first leg goalscorer Mancini after 65 minutes and barely 60 seconds later the Serbian striker sent a Max Tonetto cross against the bar.
The critical point in the game came 20 minutes from the end when Pepe was given his marching orders after picking up his second yellow card for a foul on Vucinic.
Roma took just three minutes to take advantage of having an extra man when Taddei escaped his markers to beat Iker Casillas with a header from close range.
Real equalised just two minutes later when Raul got his 61st Champions League goal, and his fifth this season, with a right foot shot following a Robinho cross from out on the left.
The goal will be clouded in controversy as Raul looked clearly in an offside position but Greek referee Kyros Vassaras waved away the Roma protests.
In the end though, whether Raul was offside or not became a moot point.
In the last 10 minutes, Real threw everything at their Italian opponents in a bid to try to find a second goal and force extra time but again paid the penalty for having little cover at the back.
Two minutes into injury time, Vucinic bravely dived for a Christian Panucci cross and his headed goal clinched the tie.
Roma go into the Champions League quarter-finals for the second successive year while Real’s defeat leaves Spain with only Barcelona going into the draw on March 14.
Vucinic is man of decision.His biography said that - he having been signed at a young age, Vu?ini? showed remarkable promise early and was quickly snatched by U.S. Lecce. In his third (2004–05) season for the club, the 21 year-old Vu?ini? scored 19 goals in 29 games. Following that successful season, his progress came to a halt with only nine goals recorded in 31 games as his career stalled due to injury.Vu?ini? was one of the two Montenegro-born players who had been chosen to play for Serbia and Montenegro at 2006 FIFA World Cup (the other one was Dragoslav Jevri?); he had been capped already two times for the Serbia and Montenegro team, but on May 23, 2006 he got injured and could not participate to the competition.
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