Mourinho delighted as Real sail into quarters

Real Madrid coach delighted at his team’s performance after his side entered the Champions League quarter-finals.

PARIS:

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho was delighted at his team’s performance after his side entered the Champions League quarter-finals. Real overcame Lyon 3-0 to seal a spot in the last-eight after seven years while Chelsea drew 0-0 with FC Copenhagen to seal their quarter-finals progress.

“The bad run had to end and it did tonight,” said Mourinho. “We deserved to go through because we were better.”

Meanwhile, Lyon coach Claude Pel was gracious in defeat. “We found ourselves up against a great team,” said Puel.

Real scored in the first-half when Marcelo defied the Lyon defence to score. Karim Benzema and Angel Di Maria capitalised on weak defence in the second-half to complete the victory.

Ancelotti unperturbed with goalless draw

Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti was not overly worried about his team’s inability to score as the hosts qualified for the last-eight courtesy a 2-0 aggregate success over Copenhagen.

“We had a lot of opportunities and didn’t take them but I’m not worried,” said Ancelotti.

Chelsea largely dominated the encounter and came close to a winning goal in the second-half when John Obi Mikel headed against the crossbar.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2011.