Karim Benzema and Kaka scored late goals to give Real Madrid an emphatic 3-0 win at APOEL Nicosia in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday.
The nine-times European champions dominated the match, but APOEL, the first Cypriot side to reach the last-16 of Europe’s premier club competition, defended solidly to frustrate their Spanish opponents until the last 15 minutes.
The arrival of Kaka as a substitute midway through the second half created the breakthrough, the Brazilian producing a superb cross from the left for the diving Benzema to head powerfully home after 74 minutes.
Photo: EPA
Kaka slotted in the second goal from 8m, following a surging run down the left by his fellow substitute Marcelo, and Benzema struck again in the last minute to put the La Liga leaders firmly on course for the semi-finals.
“It took us a long time to open the score, but that had a lot to do with our opponents who played very well,” Real coach Jose Mourinho said.
“They don’t have the outstanding individual talent that other teams in the Champions League have, but in terms of organization and character they are fantastic,” he added.
“They created many difficulties and I think we won the game because we played well. What they did was fantastic and we had to play at optimum strength to win, they were fantastic on defense and they deserve our respect,” he said.
APOEL’s Brazilian defender Marcelo Oliveira was carried off on a stretcher after pulling his hamstring early in the match, but the home side initially made light of his absence.
Benzema missed a golden opportunity to open the scoring late in the first half, the French striker inexplicably directing the ball over the bar from close range with the goal gaping.
APOEL failed to register a shot on the Real goal, but the Spanish side became increasingly frustrated by their inability to break through.
Cristiano Ronaldo caused problems without going close to scoring and it needed the introduction of Kaka to provide the spark for Real.
The playmaker cleverly set up the first goal for Benzema with a pinpoint cross and clinically converted Marcelo’s cutback, before Mesut Ozil crossed for Benzema to tap in his second.
APOEL chairman Phivos Erotocritou said APOEL were proud of their achievements.
“We have our head held high. It has been really special, we are very proud that we got to this point. It is certainly not a result to be ashamed of, we are very, very proud we got to this point,” he said.
The second-leg game in Madrid takes place on Wednesday.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier