Real Madrid beat Roma to reach Champions League quarter finals

MADRID - Real Madrid qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League after eliminating Roma in the last 16 of the competition on Tuesday night.

Real Madrid's coach Zinedine Zidane looks at before match.  [Photo/Agencies]

Zinedine Zidane's side qualified 4-0 on aggregate with a 2-0 home win, but they saw how their rivals missed several clear cut scoring chances before Cristiano Ronaldo put them ahead 25 minutes from time.

Although the talk has been about how well Real Madrid's youngsters have performed in their last two games, with the arrival of a big game, Tony Kroos and James Rodriguez were back in the Madrid side while Danilo was preferred to Dani Carvajal at right back.

Meanwhile a fit-again Gareth Bale was back in attack after scoring on his return from injury at the weekend.
The first half saw both sides look to play open attacking football with Cristiano Ronaldo looking to shoot at any opportunity, although Edin Dzeko had the best chance for Roma on 14 minutes.

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring a goal. [Photo/Agencies]

Real Madrid were controlling the play, but Roma were threatening in attack on the break thanks to Mohamed Salah, although Ronaldo had a couple of chances well saved by Wojciech Szeczesny before halftime.

The second half began with Madrid pressing but Salah was guilty of a bad miss for Roma, firing wide when clean through on Keylor Navas, while Alessandro Florenzi also forced the keeper into action before Dzeko did the same from the resulting corner.

Ronaldo put Madrid ahead after 64 minutes following a cross from Lucas Vazquez and James sealed the qualification four minutes later with a left foot shot into the bottom corner to make the Italians pay for their poor finishing which means Real Madrid have still to concede a goal at home in the competition.