Chelsea breaks Benfica's home record as Madrid marches on.

Chelsea ended Benfica's unbeaten run at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon,Portugal. Salomon Kalou's first half strike was enough to give Roberto di Matteo's side an unlikely 1-0 win against their hosts. The first half of the game was characterized by half chances and excellent defending from both sides. Raul Meireles fired a shot that was saved by the Benfica keeper. Salomon Kalou did a good job down the right flank before feeding the Portuguese International.
In the second half, David Luiz cleared the ball on the goal line to deny his former club the chance to take the lead. Terry's arm caused some controversy in the camp of the home side as he handled Maxi Perira's shot in the penalty box some few moments after Ashley Cole blocked a goal bound shot from Jardel.
Chelsea took the lead in the 75th minute when Fernando Torres provided a cross that Kalou turned it into the net after battling two defenders.

In Cyprus,Apoel Nicosia lost at home to Real Madrid by three goals to nil. The Cypriot were able to force the Spanish club to a goalless draw in the first half, although Karim Benzema missed a seater. The Frenchman made amends by scoring a brace in the second half. The first was a diving header while the last goal was a neatly taken shot. Mourinho introduced Kaka and Marcelo after the first goal and the two players exchanged passes before Kaka scored a beautiful goal.

Mourinho

Real Madrid will have very little work to do at the Santiago Bernabeu when the two sides meet again. 

Apoel VS Real Madrid preview

Apoel Nicosia created an upset by defeating Olympique Lyonnais in the round of 16. Apoel is the first Cypriot team to reach the quarter final stage of the UEFA Champions League. The two aggregate score line was 1-1. Apoel qualified on penalties. Real Madrid will hope to continue from where they stopped over the weekend. The Merenges defeated Real Sociedad 5-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu to maintain their six points lead over Barcelona. CSKA Moscow was sent packing on a 5-2 aggregate loss. Karim Benzema and Christiano Ronaldo are both expected to be in the attacking setup of the nine time European Champions while Gonzalo Higuain could be introduced later in the game. Solari and Ailton are expected to feature for the Cypriot side. Jose Mourinho has never lost out at the quarter final stage of the UEFA Champions League.

Chat Soccer's prediction: Apoel 1-2 Real Madrid
Date: 27th March,2012
Venue: Neo GSP,Strovolos
Time: 18:45 GMT

Champions League draws!

Apoel Nicosia of Cyprus will host Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid in the first leg of this season's UEFA Champions League fixture. The winner of the two legged affair between these two teams will tackle the conqueror of the Milan v Barcelona face off. AC Milan struggled to beat Arsenal 4-3 on aggregate in the round of 16 and they will face a red-hot FC Barcelona at the San Siro before they travel to the Camp Nou for the second leg. The two teams met during the group phase, with Milan beating the Catalans 3-2 in Italy.
 Four time Champions, Bayern Munich of Germany will travel to the Stade de France in Marseille before the Mario Gomez inspired club welcome the French side at the Allianz Arena which will serve as the venue for this season's UCL final in May. Benfica FC will meet Chelsea in Portugal before they visit Roberto di Matteo's men at the Stamford Bridge in London.

Summary: Road to May final in Munich
Quater final

Apoel V Real Madrid           Match 1

AC Milan V Barcelona         Match 2

Benfica V Chelsea                Match 3

Marseille V Bayern Munich  Match 4

Semi final

Match 1 winner VS Match 2 winner

Match 3 winner  VS Match 4 winner

Four In Four Out!

Four teams have qualified for the quarter final stage of the UEFA Champions League while another four are out of the tournament. After two days of exciting UEFA Champions League action, four teams have emerged as quarter finalists. AC Milan of Italy qualified despite losing 3-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates stadium. The Italians survived a scare in England on Tuesday night. The first leg ended 4-0 at the San Siro stadium. Benfica defeated Zenit Saint Petersburg of Russia by 2-0 in Lisbon. The Portuguese giants defeated Zenit 4-3 on aggregate. The Russians defeated Benfica 3-2 in the first leg but crashed out in Portugal.
FC Barcelona recorded a scintillating 7-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen of Germany to qualify on a 10-2 aggregate scoreline. Apoel Nicosia surprised everyone as they ensured that Olympique Lyonnais of France won't be in the last eight of Europe's elite club competition.

Qualified teams: FC Barcelona,AC Milan, Benfica and Apoel Nicosia.
Eliminated teams: Leverkusen,Arsenal,Zenit,Olympique Lyon


The remaining four teams that will fit into the categories above will emerge next week.

History-making APOEL eliminates French giants!

APOEL Nicosia became the first team from Cyprus to reach the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League after a dramatic penalty shoot out victory over Olympique Lyonnais of France. The French team were drawn against the debutants when the finished second in the group phase and many expected the French Ligue 1 side to progress without any problem, but the Cypriot had others ideas. Apoel were beaten 1-0 in Lyon three weeks ago and the Cypriot defeated Lyon by the same margin at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia. After a barren 30 minutes of extra time the match winner was decided via penalties as the two sides settled for a 1-1 aggregate scoreline. Lisandro Lopez's penalty crept in after the Apoel keeper had saved it, but that wasn't enough for the debutants to progress at the expense of their highly favoured opponents.