Champions League round-up: Real Madrid escape Schalke scare to make quarter-finals
European champions Real Madrid progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals by the skin of their teeth after they suffered a shocking home defeat to Schalke but scraped through on aggregate.
The Germans side exploited some horror show defending from the Spanish giants to win 4-3 on the night, but it is Cristiano Ronaldo and co. who go through with a 5-4 triumph over the two ties.
The Santiago Bernabeu faithful were left embarrassed by their side, with Ronaldo shaking his head as he left the field at the final whistle, after they barely survived a very real scare against Roberto Di Matteo’s dogged team.
Real, who ran out 2-0 winners in the first-leg, were hopeless at times and deserved to find themselves a goal down when Christian Fuchs found the net on 20 minutes with a thumping strike, though Iker Casillas - who endured a torrid evening between the sticks - should have done better.
Ronaldo then pulled his side out of the dirt with a top class header to level, but Klaas-Jan Huntelaar had the German outfit back in front moments later; the Dutchman - who had earlier hit the post - firing past Casillas on the re-bound after goalkeeper failed to hold a shot.
Another bullet header from Ronaldo - which saw the Portuguese star overtake rival Lionel Messi with a new record of 76 Champions League goals - saw Real equalise again with the scores 2-2 at the break, and Karim Benzema seemed to have the win in the bag with the hosts’ third goal shortly after the re-start.
But a simply mad end-to-end encounter continued, with European debutant Leroy Sane curling a superb shot past Casillas to pull Schalke level at 3-3, and Huntelaar netting his second of the night with six minutes left to bring the Bundesliga outfit one goal away from what would have been a historic away-goals victory.
They had chances too, with Casillas twice saving last-gasp efforts from Sane and Benedikt Howedes, but the holders managed to hold on, just, to seal their progression.
Meanwhile, Porto join the European champions in the hat for the last-eight after seeing off FC Basel 4-0 at the Estadio do Dragao, winning 5-1 on aggregate.
Porto took little time to kick off the rout, with Yacine Brahimi opening the scoring on 14 minutes with a beautiful free-kick.
Hector Herrera doubled their lead with a fine long-range effort in the second-half, and Casemiro soon made it three and almost broke the net in the process, smashing in a piledriver free-kick from 30-yeards out.
And the Portuguese giants sealed the win, and proved they will be worthy opponents in the quarter-finals, with another classy goal as Vincent Aboubakar rounded off a brilliant performance with another long-range peach.