The Hindu : Sport / Football : Real Madrid, Chelsea eye last eight spots

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Real Madrid, Chelsea eye last eight spots

LONDON: Real Madrid and Chelsea could each need just one goal to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League on Wednesday.

Madrid trails AS Roma 2-1 after the first leg two weeks ago, so a single goal and a clean sheet at Santiago Bernabeu would send the record nine-time European champion through to the next round.

Chelsea is in a similar situation when it hosts Olympiakos after a scoreless draw in Greece.

The odds are better for Chelsea than Madrid.

Madrid’s recent form indicates it will probably need to score more than one goal. In reclaiming a five-point lead in the Spanish league at the weekend, the 3-2 win at Recreativo Huelva again exposed Madrid’s weakness at the back, which won’t be helped by the absence of defender Christoph Metzelder because of injury.

Roma showed in the first game at Stadio Olimpico that it knows how to exploit that weakness, with David Pizarro and Amantini Mancini scoring after Raul Gonzalez had given the Spanish team an eighth-minute lead.

Difficult match

“It will be a very difficult match,” Madrid defender Fernando Gago said. “But we must survive it to keep advancing.”

Chelsea is looking strong on the field after a 4-0 win at West Ham in the English Premier League, but British papers have reported disharmony in the Blues squad, which will improve the Greek team’s hopes of a shock win.

“I think they will be a danger to us at Stamford Bridge,” Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard said. ‘

‘They play a very strong and compact game and are dangerous on the counterattack, so perhaps they are set up to try and come away and nick a goal.

“It’s not over yet.” — AP

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