REPORT | 02/04/2014 | ALBERTO NAVARRO

Borussia Dortmund returned to the Bernabéu one season after their last visit and Real Madrid were well aware that their best chance of reaching the semi-finals lay in a good result in front of their home fans in the first leg. The Whites, who have now played 17 matches at home without losing, only needed three minutes to demonstrate why and take an early lead. Benzema received the ball in the corner, picked out Carvajal and the academy graduate played in Bale, who charged into the area and subtly punted the ball past Weidenfeller.

The home side were running rings around their opponents and had the German box under siege. The next two chances fell to Cristiano Ronaldo. His shot from the edge of the box was seen off by the visiting keeper after 10 minutes, and the shot-stopper produced another great save two minutes later from a free-kick from the Portuguese striker. Pepe could have scored too in the 14th minute, but a full-stretch Weidenfeller stopped his header. The German keeper was, without doubt, the star of his team.

Borussia Dortmund barely created any danger. They were still yet to have a shot on goal and were reduced to seeing off the home-team's persistent attacks, but before half an hour was up, the Whites had their second. Isco controlled the ball on the edge of the area, lifted his head and conjured up a precise shot that not even Weidenfeller at full stretch was able to stop on its way to the back of the net in the 27th minute.

Real Madrid was now winning 2-0, the result that Modric called "excellent" in a press conference the previous day, but given what was happening on the pitch it looked like a meagre lead. And even more so after Bale's free-kick, which forced another superb stop from the German keeper when the clock read 30. It was a great first half for Real Madrid. There were 45 minutes left to play and there were two objectives; to increase the lead and, above all, not to concede.

Cristiano Ronaldo makes history in the competition once more
While in the first half it took three minutes to open the scoring, they were close to finding the net after two in the second. Bale was at the centre of it again, but this time Weidenfeller came out on top of the one-on-one. However, he was powerless ten minutes later. It was a sublime move from Modric, who left Cristiano Ronaldo alone in front of the visiting goalkeeper. The Portuguese was on target, scoring his fourteenth goal in the competition to equal the record for goals scored in one edition of the tournament.

It then became an end-to-end match. It could have gone from 3-0 to 3-1 in a move in which Pepe produced a timely tackle after 59 minutes, or 4-0 if Weidenfeller had not been there once more to see off a wicked Benzema volley from the edge of the box after 61 minutes of play, but there were no more goals in a match from which Cristiano Ronaldo had to withdraw with a niggle. Real Madrid has taken a giant step towards the semis. The tie will be wrapped up next week in Signal Iduna Park.