Real Madrid are confident a hostile home support can help them overturn a 2-1 deficit against Bayern Munich on Wednesday in the second-leg of their Champions League semi-final.
9:15AM BST 24 Apr 2012
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Portugal international Cristiano Ronaldo spoke of the importance of the crowd at the Santiago Bernabeu after edging his side closer to their first Spanish league title in four years on Saturday with the decisive goal in a 2-1 win over Barcelona.
"I hope the Bernabeu gets the first goal. The crowd has to be ready from the minute we go on the pitch because we feel their influence. It's a big match and if we have the crowd's support we'll be full of confidence," he said.
"We know from the first game that Bayern are going to play on the counter-attack and they'll have a lot of respect for us in our own stadium."
After a tight first leg decided in Bayern's favour by a Mario Gomez goal in the 90th minute, every little detail is going to count as these two giants – with 13 European Cups between them – go head to head again.
"Mario Gomez, who is a striker and one of the top scorers in the Champions League, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben are all very dangerous," Ronaldo added.
"We will have to be very careful on the four guys who play up front because one of them will try to make the difference."
Saturday's victory in the Clasico will lift Madrid as they attempt to reach their first Champions League final since 2002, when they beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 at Hampden to lift a record ninth continental crown.
A number of players on both sides are under threat of missing the final if they are booked on Wednesday.
For Madrid, Xabi Alonso, Fabio Coentrao, Higuain and Sergio Ramos will all have to be careful while seven Bayern players are on their last warning, including Muller and captain Philipp Lahm.
