Madrid: Real Madrid took a giant step towards qualifying for the semi-finals of the Champions League with a 3-0 win over Borussia Dortmund while 2012 winners Chelsea suffered a massive setback losing 1-3 to French club Paris St.Germain.
Goals from Gareth Bale, Isco and Cristiano Ronald on Thursday (IST) helped Real Madrid forget the pain of their semi-final defeat to the German side last season, reports Xinhua.
Gareth Bale opened the scoring in the third minute after accepting a pass from Dani Carvajal as the Borussia defence looked as if they were still in the dressing room. Bale was able to find space in the penalty area to poke the ball into the Borussia net.
On a cold and rainy night in Madrid, the home side adapted faster to the conditions and were clearly motivated, pinning their rivals back in their own half with their swift attacking football.
Meanwhile, despite the efforts of their coach Jurgen Klopp on the touchline, this was not the Borussia which had hit Madrid with waves of players on the counter-attack a year ago.
Following a poor ball out from the visitors’ defence, Isco was able to find space to curl home a neat shot from outside of the penalty area just before the half-hour mark.
The game dropped in intensity after Real Madrid’s second goal, but the start of the second half saw both sides return to hostilities and Ronaldo added a third after Luka Modric had won the ball in the middle of the park to set him through on goal. Bale fired over for Madrid in the closing minutes, but by then his side were content with a score which means it would need a disaster in Germany next week to see them fail to make the last four.
Fernando Torres looks set for the Stamford Bridge exit door and Chelsea are in danger of Champions League elimination after a night in Paris when, for once, manager Jose Mourinho’s tactics backfired spectacularly.
Mourinho, clearly no longer trusting the 50.0 million pounds ($83.17 million) Spanish striker after his latest lame performance in a 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace last Saturday, started without a recognised forward against Paris St Germain.
Although they played well in patches, the plan failed as Chelsea lacked firepower up front and made mistakes at the back to allow PSG to give themselves a decent shot of reaching the last four with a 3-1 win in the first leg of the quarter-final.
Instead of leading the line, a clearly fed-up Torres warmed the bench for almost an hour while German midfielder Andre Schurrle played as the nominal front man but spent most of his time working and running hard but creating very little.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is integral to Paris St Germain’s five-year plan to win the Champions League but in beating Chelsea 3-1 in the quarter-final first leg yesterday the French club proved they can manage when he goes missing. (Agencies)
