By Mike Collett
LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) – Real Madrid and Chelsea look set
to join Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the Champions League
semi-finals when they complete their last eight ties at home to
APOEL Nicosia and Benfica respetively on Wednesday.
Barring what would be the greatest upset since European club
soccer began in the 1950s, Real will advance and face Bayern
after winning the first leg 3-0 in Cyprus last week.
Bayern reached the last four after their 2-0 win over
Olympique Marseille on Tuesday at their Allianz Arena, which
will stage the final, to complete a 4-0 aggregate victory.
Real coach Jose Mourinho, bidding to become the first man to
lift the European Cup with three clubs after successes with
Porto and Inter Milan, said he plans to field a strong side out
of respect to APOEL, the first Cypriot side to make an impact in
European club competition.
Chelsea also start as favourites to win their quarter-final
against Benfica albeit with the tie more finely balanced, though
the London side are in command after winning the first leg 1-0
in Lisbon last week.
Chelsea, who are set for their sixth semi-final appearance
in the last nine seasons, will face holders Barcelona in the
last four if they do see off their Portuguese opponents as
expected.
Barca stayed on course to become the first team to lift the
European Cup in successive seasons since AC Milan in 1990 when
they beat the Italian side 3-1 at the Nou Camp on Tuesday after
the first leg ended in a 0-0 draw.
Lionel Messi took his goal tally for the season to 58 with
two first half penalties to set a Champions League scoring
record of 13 – which he extended to 14 goals – in one season.
(Reporting by Mike Collett; editing by Ken Ferris)
