MADRID, Spain (AP) — Real Madrid are ready to risk key players battling injuries when they play Tottenham today in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.

Only three days after Madrid lost their perfect home record, coach Jose Mourinho included forward Cristiano Ronaldo, whose nagging thigh injury led the Portugal forward to miss Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Sporting Gijon, in the squad.

While the Portuguese coach ruled striker Karim Benzema out with a leg injury, Argentina forward Angel di Maria and Brazil internationals Kaka and Marcelo are all available despite injury worries.

“It’s a game the Santiago Bernabeu (stadium) hasn’t had for a long time now. It seems normal to me that there’s nothing else to think about than this game,” said Mourinho, before qualifying a goalless draw as an acceptable result with the return leg at White Hart Lane on April 13.

With Madrid’s domestic title hopes fading, Madrid need Ronaldo in the lineup to focus on winning the European Cup for a record 10th time. Madrid now trail Spanish league leader Barcelona by eight points.

“I would be happy if he wasn’t playing for sure but I know he is playing so we have to accept that,” Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp said yesterday. “We have to cope with that.”

Expectations are high with Mourinho — who won the Champions League as coach of FC Porto in 2004 and then again with Inter Milan last season — at the helm of a club without silverware for two-plus seasons. Madrid are also playing in this stage of the competition for the first time in seven years.

Redknapp has his own injury worries although Gareth Bale is fully recovered from a hamstring injury and available after missing Tottenham’s Premier League match at the weekend.

The London club has only two fully fit central defenders in Michael Dawson and Sebastien Bassong, with Ledley King, Jonathan Woodgate and Younes Kaboul out and William Gallas (knee) and midfielder Niko Kranjcar (foot) doubtful. Midfielder Steven Pienaar is also out with a groin injury.

Bale is having another outstanding season for Tottenham but has made only three brief appearances since the end of January. He electrified the San Siro with a hat-trick against Inter in the group stage.

Madrid had won all 22 games this season in the Spanish capital before their first loss since last April. Mourinho’s run of nine years without a home loss — which includes the Portuguese coach’s spells at FC Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan — was also halted after 150 games.

With Benzema missing, Emmanuel Adebayor is set to start again while Gonzalo Higuain is available off the bench after returning from a back injury.