Nicosia: Heavyweights of European football Real Madrid and Chelsea took a huge stride forward to march into the semis of the UEFA Champions League after they defeated their respective opponents in the first leg of the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Nine time winners Real Madrid beat the APOEL 3-0 whereas Chelsea only English club to have made it this far in the current season prevailed over Benfica 1-0.

Real Madrid taking on the APOEL, the first club from Cypriot to have come this far in the tournament ever were in their ruthless best, but could not capitalize early on and it was only during the end of the match that they scored all their goals.

APOEL played a very defensive football and did not have a single shot at the target throughout the course of the match, but their approach could not stop the Spanish giants from breaking free when Karim Benzema drew the first blood in the 74th minute after he fired in a header off a cross from Kaka who came in a substitute for Gonzalo Higuain in the 64th minutes.

The goal saw Real breaking all shackles and eight minutes later they doubled the score line after Kaka’s close range shot from a pass by unmarked Marcelo found the nets. The goal had indeed put the match out of APOEL’s reach and there was no chance that they could have jumped back from there.

And if that was not enough, Benzema piled up on to their miseries after he scored again from a close range off a cross from Mesut Oezil in the 90th to finish off the game in style.

Meanwhile in Lisbon a goal by Salomon Kalou helped Chelsea defeat Benfica 1-0 and hand them an upper hand ahead of the next leg match at the Stamford Bridge.

After missing out on few opportunities, Kalou finally helped Chelsea to find the winner in the 75th minute following some great work from Fernando Torres from the right.

By Indian Sports News Network