Real Madrid 1 Roma 2
Real Madrid came into this game with a lot of injuries to key players like Ruud Van Nistlerooy, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and suspension to Sergio Ramos. They were however boosted by the return of Robinho and Pepe but ultimately paid for the lack of creativity in the middle of the park and for the lack of physical presence upfront.
Roma on the other hand had a full complement to pick from and played a very smart game denying Real any space whatsoever and causing problems of their own with Alberto Aquilani being outstanding in the 1st half. He had 2 tremendous efforts, the 1st of which ricocheted off the crossbar with Iker Casillas beaten all ends up and the 2nd in a matter of seconds, forcing Casillas into a very smart save.
Francesco Totti was not at his showy best but he held the ball up brilliantly for his teammates to join up in the attack most especially Simone Perrotta, who's unselfish, running, typifies the way Roma play.
Real Madrid did not create many chances but the ones they did create were wasted by Robinho and Julio Baptisa as they both should have hit the target when presented with golden opportunities. Baptista did hit the bar with a brilliantly taken free kick.
Pepe was given his marching orders for a 2nd yellow card when he brought down Mirko Vucinic very close to his penalty box.
Roma struck the 1st blow when Rodrigo Taddei rose to head in a brilliant cross from Max Tonetto in the 73rd minute. Raul replied with a typically cool finish after he was put through by Guti in the 75th minute but he was clearly in an offside position.
Real incredibly were playing better with 10 men than they were with 11 and Raul, on 2 occasions nearly got his side in front but he was thwarted 1st by Juan then he headed over from a free kick. Roma had the game sewn up when a free kick by Christian Panucci was missed by Fabio Cannavaro but was met by the very impressive Vucinic to make it 2-1 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate.
The Greek referee, it has to be said was way too fussy and booked players, sometimes needlessly and never really gave the game a chance to flow. Roma would not care too much about that and would be looking forward to the quarter-final draw on Friday week.
Chelsea 3 Olympiakos 0
Chelsea had a very comfortable ride to the quarters as most people thought they would as Michael Ballack headed them in front from a Frank Lampard cross in the 6th minute. Lampard helped himself to an easy goal when the goalkeeper spilled Ballack's shot and in the 3rd minute of the resumption in the 2nd half Solomon Kalou made I 3-0 from another goalmouth scramble.
Porto 1 Schalke 0 (Schalke win 4-1 on penalties)
Manuel Neuer gave the best goalkeeping display by anyone in this year's champions league last night as he made 3 tremendous saves in the match and then another great goalkeeping display in the penalty shootout. Ironically it was not until went down to 10 men did they start to play some good stuff when Jorge Fucile was harshly sent off for a high challenge on Halil Altintop. Four minutes later Lisandro Lopez swivelled and scored the best goal of the night and it had to be to beat Neuer in such inspired form as he his hit the roof of the net with the goalkeeper left floundering.
Ricardo Quaresma really should have put Porto in front in extra-time but left all alone with Neuer, he could not make up his mind what he wanted to do and eventually his attempt was saved by Neuer. In the penalty shootout, predictably Schalke scored all their whilst Neuer made saves from Bruno Alves and Lisandro to put Schalke in the quarter finals of the champions league for the 1st time in their history.
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