Real Madrid have progressed to the quarter-finals of the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League in dramatic fashion.
The Spanish giants, who clinched Europe’s premier club competition last season, were beaten 4-3 by German side Schalke at the Santiago Bernabeu but managed to get through 5-4 on aggregate.
It was a brilliant performance from Roberto Di Matteo’s Schalke who often had Carlo Ancelotti’s Los Blancos on the hop, twice taking the lead in the first half.
">Christian Fuchs opened the scoring on 20 minutes before Cristiano Ronaldo responded five minutes later to restore parity.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar then had the visitors in front again in the 40th minute but Ronaldo was quick to rescue Madrid by becoming the leading scorer in UEFA club competition history with his 78th goal and 75th in the Champions League, equaling Lionel Messi.
Karim Benzema kept his composure in the area seven minutes in to the second half to fire Madrid ahead before teenager Leroy Sane produced a delightful curling effort from the edge of the area just before the hour-mark.
Schalke then struck fear into the hearts of Madrid when Huntelaar made it 4-3 on the night but the home side were able to hold out for a narrow overall win which will certainly won’t do much to appease the pressure on Ancelotti.
The defeat on the night saw a run of 10-straight UCL wins come to an end and ended their 12-game winning streak at home in Europe’s top club comp.
In Portugal, FC Porto cruised to a 4-0 victory over FC Basel to secure a 5-1 aggregate triumph.
Goals from Yacine Brahimi, Hector Herrera, Casemiro and Vincent Aboubakar did the damage before Walter Samuel was sent off in injury-time to further rub salt into the wounds of the Swiss champions.