We can beat Lyon, says Real´s Arbeloa

Real Madrid’s players believe they can turn around their last-16 Champions League tie against Lyon after losing 1-0 at home to the French club Lyon, defender Alvaro Arbeloa said on Wednesday

“We have complete confidence in ourselves. We know we can turn the situation round and greatly improve our game compared to yesterday (Tuesday),” said the 27-year-old former Liverpool player.

“We know we can count on the support of 80,000 fans and we’ll play much better in this game.

“Lyon played a very physical game and we did not respond. Tactically, they handcuffed us…they played a great game and we had one of our weakest of the year.”

Manuel Pellegrini’s side are under pressure to bring the Champions League back to Madrid after spending millions of euros on big money signings such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and former Lyon striker Karim Benzema.

The nine-time European champions also saw their bitter rivals Barcelona win the competition in style last year when the Catalan club beat Manchester United.

But they are even more motivated to win this year’s edition as the final will be played on May 22 at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, Real Madrid’s home ground.

The Spanish giants have fallen at the last-16 stage in the past five seasons and have not won Europe’s most-coveted trophy since 2002 when they beat Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in Glasgow.