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April 2004. AC Milan had just thumped Deportivo La Coruña 4-1 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie and all hopes of the Spaniard's progressing to the next round were written off. One week later, the second leg tie was played in Spain and the unthinkable happened. Deportivo prevailed 4-0 and sensationally went through 5-4 against the mighty Italians. That's the task Real Madrid have on their hands tonight as they seek to become only the second team in Champions League history to overcome a first leg 4-1 defeat at the Santiago Bernabeu. Thanks to Borussia Dortmund's deadly destroyer Robert Lewandowski, Jurgen Klopp's men have one foot firmly placed in the Final and are vying to set up an all-German encounter at Wembley Stadium come May. Jurgen Klopp will be hoping his deposed German champions don't capitulate in the same manner as AC Milan on that fateful day in 2004, and will be seeking to successively eliminate a second Spanish side having already prevailed over Malaga in the quarter-finals. They should be wary however. Dortmund lost at this stage of the competition to Real Madrid in 1998, with the Spaniards going on to win the competition. Could lightning strike twice, I wonder?
Joseph Dempsey
Contributor
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
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