Liverpool rout Real Madrid

LONDON – Liverpool tore Real Madrid apart with a blistering 4-0 win to reach the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday while Premier League rivals Chelsea drew 2-2 with Juventus in Turin to progress 3-2 on aggregate.

Bayern Munich cantered into the last eight by routing Portugal’s Sporting 7-1 in Germany and 12-1 over the two legs for a Champions League aggregate record victory, eclipsing Olympique Lyon’s 10-2 demolition of Werder Bremen home and away in the corresponding round of the 2004-05 competition.
Spain’s Villarreal won 2-1 in Athens against Panathinaikos to edge the tie 3-2.
Real, 1-0 down from the first leg, had no answers to a scintillating attacking display at Anfield from Liverpool who condemned the Spaniards to a last-16 exit for the fifth successive season.
‘When you play against Real Madrid you expect it to be tight,’ Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, a Real fan and former youth team coach at the Bernabeu, told reporters.
‘But we played really well. Away we played fantastic, and today we showed them that we can play in different ways.’
It was Real’s worst defeat in a Champions League game and a miserable return to England for coach Juande Ramos, sacked by Tottenham Hotspur in October last year.
Dirk Kuyt squared for Fernando Torres to convert after nine minutes and Steven Gerrard’s penalty gave Liverpool a comfortable cushion following Gabriel Heinze’s handball.
Real keeper Iker Casillas made a string of fine saves to prevent further embarrassment in the opening half but there was no way back for the nine-times European champions when Ryan Babel’s surging run and cross was finished by Gerrard two minutes after the break. Substitute Andrea Dossena put the icing on Liverpool’s cake near the end.
Chelsea continued their good form under interim Dutch coach Guus Hiddink as the London side twice came from a goal down to knock out Claudio Ranieri’s Juventus in a controversial match.
Vincenzo Iaquinta fired the Italians ahead with a fierce shot across Petr Cech before Michael Essien, making his first start since August, equalised in first-half stoppage time.
– Nampa-AFP