Madrid crush 10-man Spurs

Emmanuel Adebayor
12 April 2012

Ten-man Tottenham's Champions League challenge was all but ended after they suffered a comprehensive 4-0 defeat to Real Madrid in the first leg of their quarter-final tie at the Bernabeu.

Former Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor returned to haunt Spurs with a brace while Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo were also on the scoresheet as Harry Redknapp's men struggled badly following the early sending off of Peter Crouch.

The England striker was booked twice in the opening 15 minutes and nine-time European Champions Madrid took full advantage to move a giant step closer to the semi-finals.

Real took a fourth-minute lead when Adebayor got in front of Jermaine Jenas and slipped a header past Heurelho Gomes. Luka Modric was at the far post but he could not stop the ball squirming in.

A late challenge from Crouch on Sergio Ramos deep in Real's half earned him a booking soon after and Real's cause was helped when Crouch was given his marching orders 15 minutes in for a second booking after a late and needless challenge on Marcelo, again deep inside the hosts' half.

Spurs had a golden chance to draw level just before the half hour when Gareth Bale found Rafael van der Vaart in the box with a flat throw but he was denied by a block from Ricardo Carvalho.

Real were adamant they should have had a penalty five minutes before the break when Michael Dawson charged down a volley with his arms raised but the referee waved play on.

Redknapp injected some pace into his attack by replacing Van der Vaart with Jermain Defoe at half-time. The striker looked lively, but Real's ascendancy was shown when Adebayor grabbed his second after angling a header past Gomes from Marcelo's cross to make it 2-0.

Only a brilliant tip-over from Gomes prevented Adebayor from netting his third as the hosts laid siege to the away goal. Gomes was made to pay for punching at a cross when the ball found its way to Di Maria unleashed a beautiful 20-yard curler past the Brazilian for the hosts' third after 72 minutes.

The killer blow came three minutes from the end though when Ronaldo got the goal his performance deserved, rifling a 20-yard volley past Gomes from Kaka's cross.

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