Real Madrid have reasons to be optimistic ahead of Wednesday's second leg of the Champions League semi-final in Manchester. Since the Champions League's inception in the 1992/93 season (replacing the former European Cup), Los Blancos have advanced in the competition in eight of ten first-leg games that ended in a draw. An impressive 80% success rate.
Despite the most recent case being negative in the 2020-2021 season when Real Madrid fell to Chelsea (2-0) after a 1-1 draw in the first leg at Di Stéfano, the only other second leg slip-up came in the 1998-99 quarterfinals, when they drew at home (1-1) with Dinamo Kyiv and then lost 2-0 in the Ukrainian capital.
Adding the "Champions era" to the old European Cup, Real Madrid have advanced in 16 of the 25 ties in which they drew the first leg.