Butragueno wary of Juventus ahead of titanic Real Madrid tussle

Emilio Butragueno expects Juventus to make it “very tough” for Real Madrid when the two heavyweights do battle in the Champions League next month.

The quarter-final draw on Friday paired last season’s finalists together, with Madrid travelling to Turin for the first leg on April 3 before hosting the return fixture eight days later.

Juve will hope to avenge the 4-1 loss to Zinedine Zidane’s side in the Cardiff showpiece last May, a result that saw the Spanish giants retain their European crown.

A 2-1 second-leg victory over Tottenham kept the Serie A leaders in the competition this term and Madrid director Butragueno feels that demonstrated their mental toughness.

Gonzalo Higuain and Paulo Dybala scored in the space of three minutes at Wembley to stun the hosts, who dominated for the majority of the two games but still ended up losing 4-3 on aggregate.

4 – Real Madrid have been eliminated in all their four #UCL ties against Juventus (except. final), three with the second leg in Italy & only one with the second leg in Spain, the last in 2015 (1-1 at Bernabéu). Danger pic.twitter.com/YDkSIk8AbX

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 16, 2018

“Juventus performed really well against Tottenham in terms of their mentality,” Butragueno told reporters.

“The English side were better in some stages of the tie but they were strong mentally, coped with that and got through.

“They know how to play these kind of games with the right character to overcome all difficulties they find.

“We also did really well against Paris Saint-Germain [in the last 16]. I think this will be a very attractive tie for all the fans, a very balanced one.

“The first fixture is in Turin, where we will try to get a nice result. Then, in Madrid with our supporters, we will try to reach the semi-finals. We know it will be very tough.”