Real Madrid and Wolfsburg have booked their spot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League courtesy their victories over Roma and Gent in the second leg of their last 16 clash on Tuesday.
At the Bernabeu, Los Blancos entered the match as the firm favourites to make the last eight following a two-goal victory in the first leg in Rome, but it was far from comfortable despite the comprehensive nature of the overall scoreline.
Real Madrid’s first sight of goal came in the eighth minute when Gareth Bale set up Marcelo inside the Roma box, but the left-back’s low effort was always moving wide of the post, before Kroos tested Wojciech Szczesny from distance.
Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo both had chances in the minutes that followed, but the former fired just over the crossbar, before the latter brought a smart save from Szczesny.
The end-to-end nature of the match continued as the hour passed, with Kroos and Ronaldo both firing wide for the home team. Finally the breakthrough came in the 64th minute, however, when Lucas Vasquez delivered a low cross into Ronaldo, who could not miss from close range.
Real Madrid then had their second of the match just four minutes later when Ronaldo set up James, whose drilled effort found a route past Szczesny from close range.
The hosts should have had a third in the 70th minute when Vasquez again set up Ronaldo, but somehow the Portuguese missed the target during a period where Roma were all over the place at the back.
Ronaldo had another chance five minutes later when Marcelo, who played the majority of the night as an attacker, delivered a super cross towards the far post, but the 31-year-old volleyed over the crossbar.
The home side had opportunities to add more goals late on, but it remained at 2-0 on the night as Zidane ensured that Los Blancos would reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the sixth successive season.
Meanwhile in Germany, Wolfsburg reached the last eight quarter-finals for the first time thanks to a 4-2 aggregate victory over Gent.
Having won 3-2 away in Belgium in the first leg last month, Wolfsburg were happy to sit back and invite pressure from Gent, who needed at least two goals, throughout the match.
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