Real Madrid v Galatasaray: live 38 min Altintop still at the centre of most of the good things Galatasaray are doing. A reasonable spell for them, and Altintop crosses dangerously from the right. The uncertain trio of Essien, Ramos and Varane get themselves in a mess trying to clear it, but the lurking Inan can't benefit. Top tweeting from Andreas Teferra on the subject of reunions: 35 min You do feel that Galatasary will score tonight. Droba is allowed to cross by Ramos when he should not be. Yilmaz on the end of it, but he fires wide. 32 min A replay throws into question that blocked corner moments before Real's second. Khedira looked to handball it. The fourth (or is it fifth?) official behind the goal was obviously stationed nearby, and obviously did nothing about it. Real Madrid 2 Galatasaray 0 (Benzema) Pfff, there goes the increasing sense that Galatasaray were going to make a proper game of this. Poor defending from them, Essien allowed far too much time and space to cross by Riera, Eboue makes a hash of a header at the far post and Benzema has the speed of thought to control and tickle it home from close range. 28 min It's a second corner in quick succession for Galatsaaray, who are growing into this. Eboue crosses low from the right for Drgoba, but Coentrao cuts it out, and it hgeads behind. Melo gets his head to it, but it's blocked, then cleared by Alonso. 27 min Another sighter for Drogba, after a clever, swift backheel from Altintop. Drogba pummels it from 25 yards out, Lopez punches it behind with a concerning lack of certainty, but the Turks do nothing from the corner. 23 min Madrid still bossing it, but it's an open enough game. Galatasaray are just beginning to realise that they'll need to get back in numbers if they're to avoid a rout. They're looking more solid, but Real are playing in a more consistently advanced position than before. Can anyone tell me what on earth Boris Johnson is doing in the crowd in Madrid tonight? 20 min Galatasary seriously need to do somethng about their exposed defence. Ronaldo miscues a sideways ball to Ozil, but it still ends up rolling towards Di Maria just shy of the area because of the sheer lack of numbers back for the Turks. Not entirely surprising, given the attacking nature of the five players stationed ahead of senisble Felipe Melo in their 4-1-3-2. 18 min Altintop again making himself useful for Galatasaray, having a reasonable crack from 25 yards that ends up just wide. Let us be honest, it's an old joke, and it's one that's just being repeated over and over again, but I am really enjoying the work of Twitter's USA Soccer Guy: 14 min Crucial tackle by Melo as Ozil finds him again on the left after a reasonably spellbinding run in front of the Galatasaray defence. Chance is cut out, but Galatasaray badly need someone to help out Melo in shielding the defensive line, Ozil and Di Maria have had a great time running around in front of them so far. Here's Jose Mourinho apologising to Fatih Terim for what's about to take place: 12 min Ooh, Drogba! He turns Varane like a big, exellent bully on the edge of the box and has a great chance. Hurries it some, and it's over. Robert Dobson has given the above question some thorough thought: Man Utd and the 2nd Division? QPR and the art of defending? Leeds and humanity? Andy Gray and Richard Keys on Super-Duper-gosh-that-is-really-amazing Sunday? Hmmm....Maybe not. How about England and the World Cup? Real Madrid 1 Galatasaray 0 (Ronaldo) Well, who saw that coming? Followers of the sport of football, I imagine. A little too easy for Ozil to feed it between Kaya and Eboue to put Ronaldo through on goal. Nice, quickk pass, mind. No doubt about the outcome, but it's a cheeky dink over Muslera just for the hell of it. 9 min It's mostly been Real on top thus far, as you may have been expecting if you're a follower of the sport of football, but Galatasaray have had a couple of promising breaks forward. Altintop a decent outlet for them on the right. 7 min Essien, playing at right back this evening because of a bet lost Jose Mourinho, pokes one through the channel for CRonaldo to run onto. He's just about ushered away by Rieira. 3 min Di Maria looking lively this far for Real, he's zipping around with no Galatasaray player able to get close to him. A pinged through ball for him allows Benzema to head at goal. 1 min We are off. Let's all enjoy the league of (some) champions. 19.44 The teams are out, the Gazprom-sponsored coin has been tossed, we are moments away. 19.40 The pre-match thoughts on attractive reunions from Ghalib Gee in sunny Nairobi: I would love to see Mancini going to manage AC Milan and linking up again with his "son" Balotelli. That will be fun for all of us, won't it? 19.35 Henry Winter's in the Bernabéu for us this evening, and sounding slightly concerned about the crowd: 19.30 Here's Didier Drogba doing some typically powerful arriving for the match: 19.20 This evening's retro highlights are brought to you by the year 2001: 19.05 Some relevant teams for you: Real Madrid: Diego Lopez, Essien, Sergio Ramos, Varane, Fabio Coentrao, Alonso, Khedira, Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo, Benzema. Subs: Adan, Pepe, Kaka, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Modric, Higuain. Galatasaray: Muslera, Eboue, Kaya, Nounkeu, Riera, Altintop, Felipe Melo, Sneijder, Inan, Burak Yilmaz, Drogba. Subs: Iscan, Zan, Bulut, Balta, Kurtulus, Amrabat, Sarioglu. Referee: Svein Oddvar Moen (Haugesund) Sometimes it's easy to preview games. Real Madrid v Galatasaray has fallen into English journalists' laps and presented a massive picture of Didier Drogba's face. This picture is pointing to a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Jose Mourinho. In between them is the word "REUNION" in gaudy neon-lighting. This song plays: Journalists write some words about the "Former Chelsea pair," "One-time Stamford Bridge duo" and "Men from the recent past who totally did things together in London with football, in blue." Everyone is delighted. There's also a marvellous sub-plot about Wesley Sneijder, who eagle-brained liveblog fans will remember played for Mourinho at Internazionale. And Hamit Altintop, who completes the hat-trick by having featured for wor Jose at Real Madrid. Links. Delicious, meaningless links. Of course the real story this evening is Real Madrid winning a football match by a margin of at least three goals. They will have to, you'd think, to ensure a relatively straightforward night in Istanbul next Tuesday. You wouldn't fancy taking anything less than a significant lead to the stadium affectionately known as "Hell." You would also entirely fancy Real Madrid to do just this. But with non-Mourinho-affliated players like Burak Yilmaz and Felipe Melo in form for the Turks this could be a tighter match than anticipated. Let's hope so, I've got to liveblog it. Team news and that tiresome fact about Istanbul being half Europe and half Asia to follow. Oh look, there it is already, ahead of time! Still, stay tuned.