PARIS — Real Madrid and Wolfsburg became the first two teams to qualify for the Champions League quarterfinals Tuesday.
Ten-time winner Real completed a 4-0 aggregate victory over Roma with a 2-0 success at their Santiago Bernabeu home, thanks to goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodriguez.
An Andre Schuerrle goal allowed Wolfsburg to beat Belgian champions Gent 1-0 at home to complete a 4-2 aggregate victory.
The Portugal forward Ronaldo, top scorer in the competition this season with 13 goals, netted for the sixth time in three games in all competitions by finishing off substitute Lucas Vazquez’s cross at the near post after 64 minutes.
Four minutes later Ronaldo, who put Real on the way to a 2-0 win in the first leg of the last-16 tie with a stunning strike, released Rodriguez with a delicate pass and the Colombia forward prodded the ball between the legs of keeper Wojciech Szczesny.
“It was a difficult game even though some people didn’t expect it would be, but in the end we achieved our objective, which was to go through, and we didn’t concede a goal,” Real coach Zinedine Zidane told a news conference.
Real’s Keylor Navas kept his sixth straight Champions League clean sheet to move ahead of former Manchester United stopper Edwin van der Sar with the second-longest run in the competition without conceding a goal and is now unbeaten in 540 minutes.
Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said before the game that he was “asking for the impossible” from his side as they looked to overturn the deficit surrendered at the Olympic Stadium.
“We had our chances and we had to score them. If we had it would have changed our mentality and the game,” Spalletti added.
Real’s Costa Rica keeper Navas has yet to let in a goal in this season’s Champions League and only trails German Jens Lehmann, who went 853 minutes in Europe’s elite club competition without conceding for Arsenal.
In Wolfsburg, a second-half goal from Schuerrle helped Wolfsburg to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time.
Forward Schuerrle, making a rare start, fired the ball in from a Julian Draxler cut-back in the 74th minute to give his side a second straight triumph over the Belgians.
Germany’s 2014 World Cup winner has struggled since joining Wolfsburg from Chelsea in a big-money move in 2015 but he was in the right place at the right time against Gent.
Both teams were making their debuts in the knockout stages and Wolfsburg’s three goals in the first leg gave Dieter Hecking’s team a major advantage going into the return match.
Gent tried hard to unsettle the host but the German side was resolute in defense and superior all round.
Arsenal in FA Cup quarters
Two goals each from Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott saw holder Arsenal stretch its three-year unbeaten run in the FA Cup thanks to a comfortable 4-0 win at Hull City Tuesday.
Arsene Wenger’s side will host Premier League rival Watford in the last eight Sunday to contest a place in the semifinals at Wembley in April after victory in a 15th consecutive tie for the Gunners as they close in on a third straight success in the competition.
Giroud opened the scoring before the break and added another in the 71st minute before Walcott netted twice in the final 13 minutes, but Arsenal progressed at a cost, losing center-backs Per Mertesacker and Gabriel in addition to Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey to injury in sealing only a second away win since mid-December.
However, a first win in six games saw Arsenal avoid its longest run without victory for 18 years as it continues to enjoy life in a cup where it last tasted defeat in February 2013 against Blackburn Rovers.
