adminGelsenkirchen – Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti hailed his team’s performance as “perfect” after their 6-1 romp at Schalke 04 in yesterday’s Champions League’s last 16, first-leg clash.Real are now all but guaranteed a quarter-final place, even with the return leg in Madrid to come on March 18, after Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale both scored two goals apiece.
Real’s Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo also scored twice in the rout on his return from a three-match Spanish league suspension.
“I am satisfied about everything, because the team played a perfect game,” said Ancelotti whose side are now unbeaten in their last 27 games dating back to October.
“After the early goal, we started getting a lot of room, that was the reason for our perfect night. It was fantastic, everything went well for us.”
Despite the massive advantage, Ancelotti said the Spanish league leaders will be taking nothing for granted for the return leg.
“There is a return leg to come and football is strange,” he said. “The advantage is big, but we want to make sure we go through. We need to have respect for Schalke and our fans, so we will be putting out our best possible side for the return leg.”
The crushing victory went some way to correcting Real’s terrible away record in Germany as they made the Royal Blues of Schalke look anything but regal. This was only Real’s second win in 26 visits to Germany after 18 defeats, including their 4-1 drubbing at Borussia Dortmund in last season’s Champions League’s semi-final.
“We didn’t think about the curse in Germany, but in doing as much as we could to win the game and take control of the tie as quickly as possible,” added Ancelotti.
Ronaldo has now scored 36 goals in 33 games and his brace saw him take over from Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the competition’s top-scorer this season with 11 goals.
“The team has played a lot of good games and this is one more,” said Ronaldo. “We played well and didn’t allow Schalke to play at their best. We are happy and a step away from the next round.
“The Schalke goalkeeper did very well and made good saves, but I believe in my ability and my teammates helped me a lot. I am very happy to score two goals.”
Schalke goalkeeper Ralf Faehrmann admitted his side had been outclassed as Real fired in 21 goal attempts compared to 10 by the hosts. Meanwhile, Chelsea have the upper hand in their Champions League last-16 tie with Galatasaray after coming away from a testing environment in Istanbul with a 1-1 first-leg draw yesterday.
The visitors led at half-time thanks to an early goal from Fernando Torres, but Galatasaray improved in the second half and restored parity after the hour mark when Cameroon defender Aurelien Chedjou found the net.
A draw was a fair reflection of the way the game went, but Chelsea will now hope to finish the job in the return at Stamford Bridge on March 18. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho opted to select Torres in attack ahead of Samuel Eto’o in one of three changes to the team that beat Everton at the weekend, with Ramires and Andre Schuerrle also coming in.
It proved to be an excellent decision as it was Torres who finished off a clinical breakaway to put the Blues in front with just nine minutes played, giving Chelsea the lead they deserved as their hosts paid for a poor start.
Former Arsenal man Emmanuel Eboue lost possession high up the field, and Chelsea pounced down the left flank, Schuerrle releasing Cesar Azpilicueta, who advanced into the box and drew goalkeeper Fernando Muslera before squaring for his fellow Spaniard to apply an easy finish.
It was a sixth goal in his last five Champions League starts for Torres, and it briefly silenced the boisterous Turkish fans inside the impressive Turk Telecom Arena.
Chelsea could possibly have put the tie to bed in the minutes that followed, with Galatasaray utterly disorganised and poor in possession.
Willian had an effort comfortably stopped by the Uruguayan Muslera before Schuerrle’s low ball from the right – with the home defence at sixes and sevens – was met first time by Ramires at the edge of the box, but his shot flew high over the bar.
There was little by means of a response from Roberto Mancini’s men, with Didier Drogba unable to wriggle free from the marking of John Terry and Wesley Sneijder incapable of influencing proceedings from the left flank.
Winger Izet Hajrovic saw his snap-shot from 20 yards saved by Petr Cech, but the recent signing from Swiss side Grasshoppers was then the victim of a tactical switch by Mancini, who sent on central midfielder Yekta Kurtulus in his place and changed to a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Gala improved after that and an Alex Telles cross-cum-shot had Petr Cech panicked before Burak Yilmaz put the ball in the net after a quickly-taken throw, but with an extra ball on the pitch at the time, the Spanish referee disallowed the goal, and booked Chelsea skipper John Terry for throwing one ball away.
A lively Torres almost made it 2-0 for Chelsea in the 52nd minute, bursting through the middle of the home back line before seeing his shot turned behind for a corner by Muslera.
However, Galatasaray finally started to grow into the contest in the second half, the raucous crowd receiving a lift when Gary Cahill nearly turned the ball into his own net after intercepting a Burak Yilmaz pass intended for Drogba.- Soccernet.
Online Reporter