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Real Madrid Crash Out; Chelsea Through | 
As expected, Tuesday’s Champions League fixtures were full of excitement and drama. While one of the fixtures was all but decided after the first leg, the other three Champions League matches were full of twists and turns.
The most action packed game of the bunch was Juventus vs. Chelsea in Turin. Juventus got off to an early stormer as Iaquinta put the Old Lady up 1-0. After Chelsea were wrongly awarded a freekick, Didier Drogba put the ball in the back of the net straight from the restart. The linesman, however, was caught napping and didn’t flag for the goal. Still 1-0 to Juve. Less than two minutes later, though, Michael Essien stormed by the Juventus defenders to tap in a Frank Lampard shot. Chelsea were back in the match, and back in the driver’s seat.
Juventus thought they were back in it after Alessandro Del Piero coolly slotted home a penalty kick. It all proved a waste, though, as Didier Drogba settled the tie with a goal in the 83rd minute. Chelsea progress to the Champions League quarterfinals with a 3-2 aggregate victory.
The other English club in action on the night was Liverpool, who had an even more impressive home victory over Real Madrid. Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard showed that they were in the mood early on, as the two combined in many fluid attacking displays. The pair each got on the scoresheet in the first half as Liverpool entered the dressing room at halftime already 2-0 up. The second half was all downhill for Real, as Gerrard made it 3-0 before Dossena added a fourth. Rafa Benitez will be delighted with his side’s 5-0 aggregate victory and a spot in the quarters.
In Greece, Panathinaikos couldn’t take advantage of their strong first leg draw against Villareal. The Greeks fell to a 2-1 home defeat at the hands of the Yellow Submarine, although it wasn’t easy for the Spaniards. After going 1-0 up, Villareal faced a scare after Panathinaikos levelled the score in the 55th minute. In the 70th minute striker Joseba Llorente made it 2-1, giving Villareal a convincing away result.
We all knew what the outcome of the Bayern Munich v Sporting fixture would be. After a 5-0 result in Portugal, Bayern opted to rest a few first team players. Even then, Lukas Podolski found himself on the pitch and on the scoresheet twice, as Bayern Munich ran away with yet another seven goals, and a 7-1 victory. That only means one thing: this fixture ended up 12-1 on aggregate. Incredible in the second round of the Champions League!
This isn’t it for the Champions League round of sixteen, though. Catch all of the rest of the fixtures tomorrow, and stay tuned to Premiership Talk for all of the updates.
Use Premiership Talk’s live score service to keep up to date with all of the Champions League matches!
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