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It’s getting serious. The Champions League is now down to the final eight teams, all of whom are hoping to lift the famous trophy in Kiev.
For four, though, the dream will come to an unwelcome end. Historically, the quarter-final stages have always been closely-fought affairs, though Real Madrid’s 3-0 win away against Juventus on Tuesday suggests that they will cruise through without too many problems.
Indeed, Zinedine Zidane’s side are seeking to move into an illustrious group of six teams that have won at this stage by five or more goals since this round was introduced in the 1994-95 season.
Among those clubs are the AC Milan team of 2004-05, who memorably saw off city rivals Inter at this juncture. They were 3-0 up on aggregate when their second leg match at San Siro, which they led 1-0, was abandoned as Inter fans threw countless flairs onto the field with little over 10 minutes left. UEFA gave Milan an arbitrary 3-0 victory but because of the manner of their victory, they have not been included in this list.
Here, then, are all five teams who have won comfortably thanks purely to their on-field performances.
Real Madrid 5-0 Spurs – 2010-11
Real Madrid are no strangers to blitzing the opposition at this stage of the competition, as they exemplified perfectly in 2011.
They did all the damage in the first leg, in which Spurs handicapped themselves by having Peter Crouch sent off after just 14 minutes. By that point, however, the London club, who counted Gareth Bale in their ranks at that time, were already playing catch up as Emmanuel Adebayor had headed the Spaniards into the lead.
It was a night upon which everything went wrong for the Premier League team, who had seen Aaron Lennon drop out shortly before kick-off due to illness. Adebayor got two for Madrid, while late goals from Angel Di Maria and Cristiano Ronaldo effectively killed the tie off.
Back at White Hart Lane, it was not so one-sided, yet Heurelho Gomes’ error off a Ronaldo shot five minutes into the second half put the tie beyond doubt – if there ever was any lingering in the first place.
Despite their thumping victory, Real Madrid lost out 3-1 to Barcelona in the semi-finals, with Lionel Messi’s memorable Bernabeu brace the decisive factor.
Barcelona 6-1 Shakhtar Donetsk – 2010-11
The 2010-11 season was Pep Guardiola’s third season in charge and would result in his second European Cup as a coach.
Barcelona were not, however, at that time looking like an all-conquering side. In the last 16, they had stared elimination by Arsenal in the face, having trailed 3-1 to the English side on aggregate with just the final quarter of the second leg to be played. Lionel Messi and Xavi, though, propelled them through.
By the quarter-finals, they were really starting to hit their groove, though. Shakhtar Donetsk felt the full brunt of their brilliance at Camp Nou in the first leg of the quarter-final.
Andres Iniesta opened the scoring before two minutes were played, while Dani Alves and Gerard Pique soon added further goals. Yaroslav Rakitskiy’s reply on the hour mark simply seemed to provoke the home side, who added two more as Seydou Keita and Xavi struck.
One name was notably missing from the scoresheet in the first leg, that of Messi. He made his presence felt in the return, netting the only goal of the game shortly before the interval to further stamp the Catalans’ impact on the tie.
Six weeks later, they were European champions, with Real Madrid pushed aside in the semi-final before Manchester United were seen off 3-1 at Wembley.
Manchester United 8-3 Roma – 2006-07
Manchester United went into the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Roma in deep trouble. They were 2-1 down from the first match, having conceded goals to Taddei and Mirko Vucinic.
It proved to be little more than a hiccup, though.
Back at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men were at their absolute pomp as they dismantled the Serie A side 7-1 to record one of the great victories in European football.
It quickly became evident that it was going to be a long evening for the men from Italy’s capital. Michael Carrick curled home a shot to level the tie before Alan Smith and Wayne Rooney scored in quick succession to put the Red Devils in command.
The second half proved to be a procession. Cristiano Ronaldo scored either side of half-time and Carrick, who has never been a player known for his scoring prowess, got a second on the hour mark. Daniele De Rossi got one back but it was fitting that it was United who had the last word as Patrice Evra netted.
Despite this stunning success, Ferguson’s men were undone by eventual champions AC Milan in the semi-finals, crashing out 5-3 after holding a 3-2 advantage from the first leg.
Real Madrid 8-2 APOEL – 2011-12
Cristiano Ronaldo is a common theme running through many of these thumping quarter-final successes, and the brilliant Portuguese was again present as Real Madrid powered past APOEL 8-2 in the 2011-12 season.
It had been a surprise that the Cypriot side had reached that stage of the competition, having stunned Lyon in the last 16, but they were to quickly find out that the step up to this level was a very big one indeed.
For nearly 75 minutes they held out at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia in the first leg, but then the floodgates opened. Karim Benzema took some measure of revenge for the club of his youth by scoring twice against the team that had eliminated him, while Kaka got in on the act as well.
There was little relent shown from the Spaniards in the second leg, where they put on a show for their home fans. Ronaldo and Kaka struck in the first half, and though the visitors twice hit back in the second, the Portuguese struck again before efforts from Jose Callejon and Angel Di Maria put the cherry on top.
Madrid thereby equalled the record for the biggest aggregate win at this stage of the competition.
Bayern Munich 6-0 Kaiserslautern – 1998-99
Kaiserslautern may find themselves at the foot of the 2.Bundesliga this season and facing the abyss of third-tier football in Germany, but less than 20 years ago they had been lifted to the brink of the elite of European football.
Thanks to the pragmatic coaching of Otto Rehhagel, who later won fame as he led Greece to the European Championship title in 2004, they won promotion into the top flight, won the Bundesliga and then stormed into the last eight of the European competition.
It was there, however, that they met their match. Pitted against a Bayern side whose decision to dispense with Rehhagel had acted as something of a catalyst to their opponents’ unlikely boom, FCB justified their decision by obliterating their German rivals.
The first leg was comfortably won 2-0 as Elber and Stefan Effenberg struck, but it was the away leg in which Bayern really flexed their muscles.
Effenberg struck inside the first 10 minutes to kill off the tie, and by the break, it was already heading towards a landslide thanks to Carsten Janker and an own goal. Mario Basler completed the rout 10 minutes into the second half and the Kaiserslautern bubble had burst.
Bayern, meanwhile, were to suffer heartache in the final as they were defeated by Manchester United, who famously turned around a 1-0 deficit in the closing seconds.
