{"id":197345,"date":"2016-03-09T07:25:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T07:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=197345"},"modified":"2016-03-09T07:25:34","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T07:25:34","slug":"real-madrid-beat-roma-4-0-to-progress-to-champions-league-quarter-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=197345","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid beat Roma 4-0 to progress to Champions League quarter-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 40th goal of the season as Real Madrid reached the Champions League quarter-finals with a 4-0 aggregate victory over Roma.<\/p>\n

Leading 2-0 from the first leg, Real peppered the visitors’ goal, although Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah wasted chances for Roma at the Bernabeu.<\/p>\n

It proved costly as Ronaldo crashed in at the near post before setting up James Rodriguez for an angled finish.<\/p>\n

Roma hit the post but Real made the last eight for a sixth successive term.<\/p>\n

With Zinedine Zidane’s team 12 points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona, and\u00a0disqualified from the Copa Del Rey, winning the Champions League remains their only realistic chance of silverware.<\/p>\n

And although the 10-times winners impressed in attack, their casual approach to defence, particularly from left-back Marcelo, will give more potent teams hope.<\/p>\n

Roma will now return to Serie A, where they lie third, after winning their last seven successive league games.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Cristiano<\/div>\n<\/div>
Cristiano Ronaldo missed a great chance to double his tally<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ronaldo settles Bernabeu nerves<\/h3>\n

Strangely for a game where Real wracked up 37 shots, Roma had the better opportunities and could have changed the mood inside the Bernabeu if Salah and Dzeko were more clinical.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo did miss a great chance to double his lead, but having been out of favour with Real fans after his seemingly critical comments about team-mates following the 1-0 defeat by Atletico Madrid on 27 February, he proved his value once again.<\/p>\n

Early on, Real’s leading scorer appeared to be trying too hard to win supporters over, occasionally guilty of showboating rather than taking the chance to shoot.<\/p>\n

Once he stung the hands of Roma goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny either side of half-time, he finally opened the scoring when he showed great anticipation to cut across Roma’s Kostas Manolas and poke in substitute Lucas Vazquez’s close-range cross.<\/p>\n

The Portuguese forward, who now has 13 goals in this season’s Champions League, set up Rodriguez for the second four minutes later as the Colombian fired in low after a swift counter attack.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Gareth<\/div>\n<\/div>
Gareth Bale has scored 14 goals this season for Real Madrid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bale comes on to improve fitness<\/h3>\n

The gap to Barcelona in La Liga has coincided with a calf injury to Gareth Bale, but, after appearing and scoring as a substitute in their 7-1 win over Celta Vigo on Saturday, the Welshman made his first start since 17 January.<\/p>\n

The world record signing worked hard on the right wing and sent in several fizzing crosses which, had Karim Benzema been playing, might have resulted in a goal.<\/p>\n

As it was, Real took the lead when Vasquez came on to replace Bale and set up Ronaldo with his first touch.<\/p>\n

But it was a decent work out for the former Tottenham player, who could yet make a telling difference as the season comes to a close and will be aiming to star for Wales at the European Championship in June.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Mohamed<\/div>\n<\/div>
Mohamed Salah was once described by a former boss as “world-class, if only he could finish”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Salah the biggest threat for Roma<\/h3>\n

When Salah played at former team Basel, his manager Murat Yakin said the winger could be world class if only he could finish.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that proved an accurate assessment of the Egyptian, who had a short-lived period at Chelsea in 2014, during which he was loaned to Fiorentina.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old caused plenty of problems for Real with his pace on the right wing, and set up Dzeko for a great early chance.<\/p>\n

But the profligacy shown by both was further underlined with another miss by Salah after the break, and 18 minutes later Real were 2-0 ahead.<\/p>\n

Diego Perotti’s shot against the post, two minutes from time, would only have been a consolation.<\/p>\n

‘Players’ reaction causes me pain’<\/h3>\n

Luciano Spalletti, Roma coach:<\/b> “We are weak and at the first sign of difficulty we cannot be the team that we need to be. It is not as if Real Madrid are going through a great period of form and at the moment they are not irresistible.<\/p>\n

“When I come back into the dressing room after the final whistle and see the players satisfied because they will get compliments for the performance, this creates a disappointment and pain in me that I cannot reconcile.<\/p>\n

“When you go into the dressing room after a 2-0 defeat, you need to be angry and realise the chances you have thrown away over these two games.”<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 40th goal of the season as Real Madrid reached the Champions League quarter-finals with a 4-0 aggregate victory over Roma. Leading 2-0 from the first leg, Real peppered the visitors’ goal, although Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah wasted chances for Roma at the Bernabeu. It proved costly as Ronaldo crashed in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}