MUNICH (AP) \u2014 Bayern Munich is primed to finish the job against embattled Real Madrid to reach the Champions League semifinals on the way to a potential treble of trophies from an outstanding season.<\/p>\n
The Bavarian powerhouse holds a 2-1 lead over Madrid from the first leg of their quarterfinal last week, and coach Vincent Kompany has a full squad at his disposal with no injuries after Bayern smashed the Bundesliga goals record with a 5-0 rout of St. Pauli at the weekend.<\/p>\n
That victory put Bayern within touching distance of yet another league title \u2013 the 13th in 14 years \u2013 while it faces Bayer Leverkusen in the semifinals of the German Cup on April 22.<\/p>\n
Bayern\u2019s excellence contrasts sharply with Madrid\u2019s troubles. The 15-time European champion faces the prospect of a second consecutive season without a trophy unless it beats Bayern away by two goals in what is sure to be a hostile environment in Munich.<\/p>\n
Madrid was held 1-1 at home by Girona at the weekend, allowing Barcelona to open a nine-point lead in La Liga, after its third straight game without a win.<\/p>\n
Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 received a blow to his face at the end of that match but will be able to play as Madrid attempts a famed \u201cremontada\u201d (comeback) to salvage the tie and keep alive its hopes of a trophy in the competition that defines the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are the team that never gives up,\u201d coach \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUNICH (AP) \u2014 Bayern Munich is primed to finish the job against embattled Real Madrid to reach the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5004,5,5005,640,799,795,796,797,1595],"class_list":{"0":"post-4954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-bayern-munich-real-madrid-champions-league","9":"tag-germany","10":"tag-madrid","11":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","12":"tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","13":"tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","14":"tag-product-32554-ap-online-soccer-game-stories","15":"tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","16":"tag-vincent-kompany"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}