A 1-1 draw at CSKA Moscow in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie might not have impressed many people (most of which don’t watch the Russian Premier League and know how good CSKA is), but it did put them in a good position going to the second leg. They got to head back to the Bernabeu needing any sort of win to advance, which surely would not be a problem, and it wasn’t. Madrid easily disposed of CSKA, 4-1, in the second leg to grab a 5-2 win on aggregate and book their spot in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Real Madrid Vs. CSKA Moscow, 2012 UEFA Champions League: Madrid Cruise To Quarterfinals
It took 26 minutes for Madrid to get on the scoreboard, but when they finally did, they did it in style. Marcelo started the move with a good pass to Sami Khedira on the right side of the box, but the great pass came from the German, who floated a brilliant ball for Kaka on the other side of the box. Kaka then crossed in front, where both Gonzalo Higuain and Ronaldo were waiting for the simple finish. It was Higuain who got there first, knocking the ball home and giving the home side a 1-0 lead.
CSKA's starting goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev, missed the match due to injury so Sergey Chepchugov got the nod in goal, and that proved to be a problem after the break when Cristiano Ronaldo let rip from distance. The shot skipped in front of goal and Chepchugov horribly misplayed the ball, allowing a shot that he should have saved easily to get past him for Madrid's second.
That 2-0 lead became a 3-0 lead 15 minutes later when Karim Benzema was played in all alone on goal. Chepchugov came rushing out to make a good save on Benzema's initial shot, but he couldn't control the rebound and Benzema knocked his second chance into the net for another Madrid goal.
CSKA did show some life late and Zoran Tosic a bit of brilliance with a great cutback and rocket off the underside of the bar and in for CSKA's lone goal, but it was far from enough. Ronaldo added a second goal just for good measure late on and Madrid were deservedly through to the quarterfinals.
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