Ronaldo, James fire Real into quarters
Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez fired Real Madrid into the quarter-finals of the Uefa Champions League with a 2-0 win on Tuesday night.
|||Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez fired Real Madrid into the quarter-finals of the Uefa Champions League with a 2-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night.
Ronaldo and Rodriguez banged in the goals within four minutes of each other after the hour mark in the last-16 second leg tie to secure a 4-0 aggregate victory.
Roma, already on the back foot from the start after conceding two goals in the first leg in Italy a fortnight ago, took charge of the game from the first whistle and had a number of chances to level the tie at 2-2 in the opening 60 minutes.
Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah had three clear-cut chances, while Roma captain Alessandro Florenzi also had a one-on-one situation with Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who was in inspired form and saved the shot with his legs.
But then Madrid sparked into life when substitute winger Lucas Vasquez burst down the right flank and whipped an inviting cross to the near-post, and Ronaldo pounced and got in front of the Roma defender to finish in style past goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny in the 64th minute.
It was the 31-year-old Portuguese superstar Ronaldo’s record 90th Champions League goal – the most in history, and eight ahead of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi – and 13th in the competition this season.
Szczesny got hurt in the process when he collided with teammate Kostas Manolas, which resulted in a gash under the right eye.
The blow appeared to affect Szczesny four minutes later when Ronaldo laid the ball into the path of Rodriguez, who drilled the ball through Szczesny’s legs for Madrid’s second.
Just two minutes later, Ronaldo had a great chance to grab his 91st goal of his Champions League career, but pulled a left-footed wide of the posts with Szczesny well beaten.
There were a few more missed opportunities at both ends of the pitch in the last quarter, but Zinedine Zidane’s Madrid did enough to advance to the last eight.
They will be joined by Wolfsburg, who held off Belgian side Gent 1-0 in Germany. Former Chelsea midfielder André Schurrle scored the winner for Wolfsburg in the 74th minute to give his team a 4-2 victory on aggregate.
On Wednesday, two further Champions League last-16 ties will be decided, with Zenit St Petersburg hosting Benfica in Russia, with the Portuguese side holding a 1-0 advantage from the first leg in Lisbon, while Chelsea will attempt to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Paris Saint-Germain at Stamford Bridge.
The final four last-16 encounters will take place next week. On Tuesday, Athletico Madrid host PSV Eindhoven locked at 0-0, while Manchester City will look to finish off the job at home to Dynamo Kiev after a 3-1 victory in Ukraine in the first leg.
On Wednesday next week, Arsenal will try to do the impossible after losing 2-0 at home when they travel to Barcelona, while there is a thriller in store in Germany between Bayern Munich and Juventus following a 2-2 draw in Italy first up.
ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za
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Tuesday’s Results
* Real Madrid 2 (Cristiano Ronaldo 64’, James Rodriguez 68’) Roma 0 – Madrid win 4-0 on aggregate
* Wolfsburg 1 (André Schurrle 74’) Gent 0 – Wolfsburg win 4-2 on aggregate