• Champions League round-up

Mourinho's Madrid progress as Chelsea limp on

ESPN staff
March 16, 2011

Champions League gallery

Carlo Ancelotti has won two previous Champions League trophies as a manager and he is inching - albeit very slowly - towards providing Chelsea's first after the Blues cruised into the quarter-finals against FC Copenhagen, drawing 0-0 on the night to advance 2-0 on aggregate.

Ancelotti's men created a plethora of chances at Stamford Bridge but ultimately played like a team that already knew they had done enough to advance to the last eight of the competition. Chelsea's starting line-up proved as much as Fernando Torres, without a goal in five games since joining the club, dropped to the bench alongside Michael Essien and Florent Malouda.

Frank Lampard, having missed a large chunk of the season, was given the chance to boost his admirable goal return since the turn of the year, and he should have done so after only two minutes when diverting Ashley Cole's low cross wide of the near post. Cole was Chelsea's main threat in the first 10 minutes, and he arguably should have scored himself with another raid into the Copenhagen area, before then turning provider to set up Yuri Zhirkov who poked the ball wide when it seemed he had to score.

Chelsea were clearly the better side, exploiting Copenhagen's right-back at will, yet on 25 minutes they were inches from falling behind as the Danes hit the woodwork with their only genuine moment of threat in the entire match. Dame N'Doye completely wrong-footed Petr Cech by firing his free-kick towards the corner where Cech had taken up his starting position, and with the keeper completely beaten the ball thudded back off a post.

In fairness to Chelsea, a Copenhagen goal would have come against the run of play with Zhirkov extremely prominent, stabbing agonisingly wide again on the half hour following Nicolas Anelka's square pass.

Half-time brought little change in pattern to the game as Didier Drogba missed an easy volley early in the second period, his miss then quickly bettered by John Obi Mikel who headed onto the bar from three yards. Torres was eventually introduced with 20 minutes remaining, and he twice came close to his first Chelsea goal, but the tie had been won in Denmark.

Marcelo grabbed the all-important breakthrough for Real Madrid © PA Photos
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Real Madrid ended their Champions League hoodoo to enter the last eight, beating Lyon 3-0 on the night to advance 4-1 on aggregate. The Spanish giants had not beaten Lyon in seven previous Champions League meetings and had exited the competition in the round of 16 in the previous five seasons, but they broke that sequence in front of their own supporters.

The big news prior to kick-off at the Santiago Bernabeu was that Cristiano Ronaldo had recovered from injury and would start in the Spanish capital. And it was the Portuguese who had the first real chance of the match, glancing Xabi Alonso's inswinging free kick into the arms of Hugo Lloris as Madrid looked dangerous in attack.

A breakthrough goal arrived eight minutes before half-time, and it was well worth the wait. Marcelo was the man who started and ended the move, exchanging a one-two with Ronaldo before cutting inside one defender and deceiving another in order to clip the ball past the exposed Lloris in the Lyon goal.

Madrid's lead could have been doubled before half-time as Marcelo continued to torment the visitors, supplying Karim Benzema from the byline as Lloris was forced into a spectacular one-handed save. Benzema then thought he had scored 60 seconds later, but his header was correctly chalked off for offside.

The Frenchman finally had reason to celebrate with 25 minutes remaining, slotting home his sixth Champions League goal of the season against his former club after latching onto Marcelo's chipped ball forward. Angel Di Maria then added a third with a late dink to kill the tie off.

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