Real Madrid will depart for London on Tuesday with a difficult – but not impossible – European mission to complete.
Zinedine Zidane’s men were all but eliminated from the Champions League late last year, but it’s been a remarkable turnaround and they will meet Chelsea on Wednesday night for a place in the final.
This will be the fifth visit for Los Merengues to the English capital, and things haven’t gone too badly for them across those games.
They’ve twice won 1-0 – on both occasions against Tottenham Hotspur – and this is a result that would be enough for them to make this year’s final in Istanbul.
Real Madrid‘s first trip to London was in 1984/85 when ‘La Quinta del Buitre‘ – the five homegrown players, such as Emilio Butragueno and Manolo Sanchis – faced the famed Spurs side of Glenn Hoddle, Osvaldo Ardiles and Ray Clemence.
That night saw them progress to the semi-finals of that year’s UEFA Cup after an own goal from Steve Perryman.
Real Madrid also triumphed at Spurs in 2010/11, with a 1-0 win securing their passage to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time in almost a decade.
That was to be the first of Jose Mourinho‘s three semi-finals with the club.
The other two encounters in London weren’t so positive for Los Blancos.
In the 2005/06 Champions League quarter-finals they could only muster a 0-0 draw at Arsenal, which saw them exit the competition.
And then in 2017/18, Real Madrid went down 3-1 to Spurs in the Champions League group stage, thanks to a Dele Alli-inspired performance.
Yet, that didn’t stop Zidane‘s men winning the competition against Liverpool the following spring.
