Pep Guardiola lost eight men for the Braunschweig trip, but with three days to go until the clash in Madrid, the injury and absentee situation has begun to improve. There was similarly positive news at Real, who had no league fixture this weekend: Cristiano Ronaldo was sufficiently recovered from a hamstring problem to complete part of the squad training session. But will he play on Wednesday? Karl-Heinz Rummenigge hopes he can: “The semi-final is a huge spectacle and it’ll be watched all over the globe. So we want to see all the best players.“
Regardless of Ronaldo’s presence or absence, the FCB chairman called for a courageous performance at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. “We need to score at least one goal. That’s what we learned from Dortmund’s meetings with Real Madrid,“ commented Rummenigge, “we’re known as la bestia negra [the black beast] down there. We need to show them la bestia negra is back.“
