Real confident of winning through on Juve's home ground

Real Madrid players say they are confident of overcoming Juventus to reach the Champions League final, despite feeling short-changed by their 2-1 win over the Italian side in Tuesday's semi-final first leg.

"The important thing was to win," said French midfielder Zinedine Zidane, in outstanding form against his old side. "The second leg will be tough, but we know that we are capable of scoring anywhere."

"You can't say that a one-goal lead is decisive, but we do have an important advantage."

Real took a deserved lead on 23 minutes when Ronaldo pounced on a loose ball to score from the edge of the area but a lapse of concentration just before the break allowed Juve to level as French striker David Trezeguet poked in from close range.

Real were dealt another blow early in the second half when Ronaldo was forced off with a calf injury and they struggled to regain the initiative until left back Roberto Carlos cracked in from the edge of the area 17 minutes from time.

"Our second goal came just at the right moment," said Zidane. "We had lost some of our rhythm for 20 minutes or so...but we reacted well and we deserved to score more goals towards the end of the match."

Defender Michel Salgado said he felt Juve had been fortunate to get a valuable away goal.

"The result didn't do us justice," he said. "Given the great job we had done in the first half it was disappointing to go into the break at 1-1. After we scored our second we deserved to get a third, while they had a lot of luck in their goal."

"Still we know that it is almost impossible to score lots of goals in a semi-final. This is a good result because we have proved before that we can win in any stadium."

The result leaves the tie delicately balanced before next Wednesday's second leg at the Delle Alpi.

Real, who are bidding for their 10th European Cup crown, will be boosted by the likely return of striker Raul, who has made a rapid recovery from his appendix operation.

It is unclear whether Ronaldo will recover in time for the second leg. The club said the Brazilian striker would undergo tests to assess the extent of his calf injury later on Wednesday.