Giant-slaying Sheriff targeting Champions League last 16 after ´dream´ win at Real Madrid

Sheriff’s win over Real Madrid was a “dream come true” but captain Frank Castaneda warned the Champions League debutants will not dwell on the upset as they target the last 16 amid their giant-slaying run.

In one of the biggest shocks in Champions League history, Sheriff claimed a late 2-1 victory at Spanish giants Madrid on Tuesday.

Jasurbek Yakhshiboev’s first-half header was cancelled out by Karim Benzema’s spot-kick after the interval in the Spanish capital, given following a VAR check after Vinicius Junior went down in the box.

However, Sheriff had the final say to maintain their 100 per cent record in Group D, Sebastien Thill’s thunderous strike in the 89th minute earning the Moldovan visitors a remarkable triumph.

Champions League debutants Sheriff = Group D leaders with 100% record #UCL pic.twitter.com/B4pbCAn0HR

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 28, 2021

“For us this is a dream come true to have won here,” Castaneda said. “We’re so happy, and just enjoying it. We have full faith in what we’ve been doing and things are going well for us.

“We came here to win. We didn’t just come here to sit around, we know how good our players are and luckily for us Madrid weren’t able to take their chances and we took ours.

“Thill’s goal is out of this world. It’s one you dream of. I thanked him at the end of the game!

“We are dreaming of getting into the last 16 and that’s our objective. Our attention now turns to Inter and we’ll work hard in order to ensure we keep getting positive results.” 

Sheriff – who beat Albanian champions Tueta Durres, Armenian titleholders Alashkert, Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade, Croatian titleholders Dinamo Zagreb and Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk during their European campaign this term – became the first team to win their first two games in the Champions League since Premier League outfit Leicester City in the 2016-17 campaign.

This was just the third ever away victory by a Moldovan team in a major European competition, following Zimbru Chisinau in the UEFA Cup in 1995 and Sheriff themselves in the UEFA Europa League in 2017.

Sheriff head coach Yuriy Vernydub said: “I’m happy to play a game like that against Madrid. I’m so full of emotion and thankful to my boys for what they’ve done. They went out there as a side, and we deserved it.

“Of course we knew that we were going to have to defend. We did that well and we countered really well too, and we were able to score a winner right at the end.

“I’m happy and proud of my side, these boys. We’re on the right path and we’ll continue to follow it.”

Sheriff are three points clear of Madrid atop of Group D, while they are five points ahead of Inter and Shakhtar.

“We aren’t thinking about the last 16 yet as we still haven’t done anything extraordinary, we’re just going forward step by step,” said Vernydub. “We have four very important games to go, and when it comes to the final group stage game then we’ll talk about the next round.”

 Sheriff’s Sébastien Thill = 1st player from Luxembourg to score in the #UCL era pic.twitter.com/gsA0KsxDbf

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 28, 2021

Sheriff match-winner Thill added: “We’re so happy today. We played a really good game. The side were so brave with how we played and luckily enough I was able to score a bit of a stunner.

“It’s the best and most important goal of my career, that’s for sure! We’ll go game by game. We’ve got a tough group, and we’ll give our all in what’s left of it.”