La Liga giants, Real Madrid, and England’s only hope in this season’s UEFA Champions League Chelsea both took giant strides in their quest to qualify for the semi-finals of the competition.
Madrid brought Cypriot side APOEL Nicosia down to earth handing them a 3-0 drubbing at their own backyard.
Kaka scored a goal either side of Karim Benzema’s brace to all but end APOEL’s fairy-tale run in the competition. Madrid, as expected, controlled possession from the off but could had to wait for 74 minutes to break the deadlock. Karim Benzema put the Los Merengues ahead with a dividing header off Kaka’s cross.
Kaka then turned scorer seven minutes later slotting in Marcelo’s cross to all but end APOEL’s campaign ahead of the second leg encounter in Madrid next week. Madrid were not yet done though and Karim Benzema put the game out of sight with his second, tapping in Mesut Ozil’s incredible pass from outside his boot.
Chelsea on the other hand will take a 1-0 lead to Stamford Bridge after outsmarting Benfica in Lisbon in a game that was barely Champions League quality. The lone goal came in the 75th minute with Salomon Kalou silencing the home crowd after lurching onto Fernando Torres’ brilliant pass from the right.
Two more quarterfinal matches are on the cards this Wednesday night with Marseille welcoming Bayern Munich at Stade Velodrome. However, the biggest fixture in the quarterfinals will be at the San Siro where AC Milan will welcome defending champions and top favourites FC Barcelona. Milan have never lost a quarterfinal match in their own backyard but they lost 3-2 to the Blaugrana in the group stages.
And That's thesteifmastertake!!
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