Get in touch with your comments as the evening’s action unfolds. Leave a comment below, send your e-mails to niall@thescore.ie , tweet us@thescore_ie or find us on Facebook.
21.41 So, that’s that – the Champions League quarter-final line-up is complete. Chelsea and Real are the final two names in the hat joining Barcelona, Shakhtar Donetsk, Schalke 04, Spurs, Inter Milan and Manchester United. Not an awful lot of easy ties left at this stage and there’s the potential for a few real crackers when the draw is made.
Thanks for joining us tonight. We’ll be back tomorrow with live coverage of Cheltenham – see you then.
21.39 Before I go, here’s Di Maria’s goal to seal the deal in Spain.
21.38 And Real Madrid join them. It’s all over at the Bernabeu – Real Madrid 3-0 Lyon.
21.37 It has finished Chelsea 0-0 Copenhagen. Chelski go through, leaving Adrian Chiles to apologise for the complete lack of goals.
21.36 The Fernando Torres Benefit Fund comes up short again. Lampard had a chance to shoot himself but tried to play his team-mate in instead. It comes to nothing.
21.34 Stoppage time at the Bridge. Slightly longer left in Madrid. It matters not – both teams are going through to the last eight.
21.30 While we wait for things to wind down, here’s Benzema’s goal.
21.29 The ball’s in the Lyon net again, but it’s ruled out for offside for the second time tonight. Spot on from the lino again.
21.28 The Chelsea faithful encourage Torres to “SHOOOOOOOOOT” as he advances towards the Copenhagen box. He chooses to knock it Bosingwa instead who tries (and very nearly succeeds) to hit the corner flag.
21.26 At this late stage, the only storyline worth playing attention to is whether or not Fernando Torres can get a goal. The outcomes of both games are little more than a formality at this stage.
21.23 Still scoreless in London but that won’t bother Chelsea or their fans. Drogba curls a 20-yard free-kick straight into the hands of Wiland.
21.21 GOAL! Real 3-0 Lyon (Di Maria) Well, that’s absolutely appalling defending by Lyon. Ozil nodded a header in behind their defence, which looked like it was trying to step up in an attempt to catch Di Maria offside. He was on by about three yards though and only had Lloris to beat which he did with ease.
21.17 Very nearly a lifeline for Lyon there. Some great link play with Lisandro set Gomis free. He hammers one from the edge of the box which Casillas makes a dog’s dinner of, pushing directly up in the air. It nearly drops behind him and into the net but Sergio Ramos is perfectly positioned to clear the danger.
21.13 While all of that was happening, I forgot to mention that Torres is on for Anelka at the Bridge. He has just over 20 minutes to open his Chelsea account, but I wouldn’t count on it.
21.11 GOAL! Real 2-0 Lyon (Benzema) Marcelo played a huge long ball deep into Lyon territory which somehow eluded all but Benzema. He took it on into the Lyon penalty area and slotted past the advancing Lloris. No extra-time in Spain tonight – I’m a happy man.
21.10 Benzema crashes to the ground with Reveillere in close attention, but the referee waves away his pleas for a penalty. Even after watching it three times, I’m still not sure. Think the defender just got his foot on the ball before he made contact with Benzema.
21.05 Seconds after the Sky commentary team tell me that Drogba is Zohore’s idol, they then tell me that they’re second cousins. Or something like that. This evening just took a very weird turn.
21.04 Copenhagen have just brought on the six-foot-two 17-year-old Kenneth Zohore, much to the delight of the travelling support. If he scores tonight, he will be the youngest ever scorer in the Champions League.
21.02 Chelsea still pushing hard for their opener. Ramires’ looping half-volley from the edge of the box ends up in the stand.
20.57 Real, meanwhile, are turning on the Barcelona-esque style. Benzema wins possession on the half-way line and plays a series of clever one-twos with Ozil. It comes to nothing though as the German’s eventual shot is deflected away for a corner.
20.56 A great block by Antonsson keeps Copenhagen level at the Bridge. Anelka was just about to pull the trigger but his second touch allowed the big Swede to make a sliding block.
20.54 Guess what I’m about to type? Chelsea really should have scored there. Mikel hits the bar with a header from a couple of yards out. To be fair to him, it wasn’t the easiest chance as he was trying to direct the ball of Jesper Gronkjaer who was the man on the post. Still scoreless.
20.53 Real are having the better of the opening exchanges in Spain. Ronaldo was totally unmarked from a corner but decided not to put his head on it for some reason. Probably didn’t want to mess his hair – who can blame him to be honest?
20.51 At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Chelsea really should have scored there. Bosingwa put the most delicious curler into the box where it found Drogba six yards out. You’d back him absolutely every day of the week from there, but he just couldn’t get it on target. Maybe I need to revise my betting strategy …
20.50 One change at half-time for Lyon. Gomis is on for Jimmy Briand.
20.49 Back underway at the Bridge. Lyon are holding up proceedings in Real – where did they go?
20.38 While I’m off making myself a cup of tea, here’s Marcelo’s goal. Told you it was a good ‘un.
20.34 And we’re all done at the Bridge as well. 0-0 there at half-time. Back in a bit.
20.33 All done in Spain. 1-0 Madrid at half-time.
20.29 Real have the ball in the net again, but it’s offside. By a good bit. Good call by the linesman.
20.28 That is an absolutely brilliant save by Lloris. Top drawer. Marcelo pulled the ball back to Benzema about eight yards out and he cleverly hit his shot into the ground, causing it to loop up and over Lloris. An outstretched paw claws away a certain goal. Great save.
20.27 Marcelo, eh? Nicely done.
20.24 GOAL! Real Madrid 1-0 Lyon (2-1 agg) Great footwork by Marcelo. He was fed by Ronaldo on the edge of the box but still had a huge amount of work to do, jinking past two defenders before smashing past Lloris. Lyon are going to have to go all-out for an equaliser now.
20.21 Another excellent chance for Zhirkov there. He hared on to Anelka’s cut-back about five yards from goal but just couldn’t direct his shot on target. Still 0-0 in both games.
20.13 Big let-off for Chelsea there. Ndoye’s free-kick takes a huge deflection and cannons back off the post with Cech left stranded. That was very close. Meanwhile, over in Madrid, Casillas has to get down smartly to turn Delgado’s shot around the post. There’s definitely a goal in Lyon tonight.
20.08 Zhirkov seems to be at the centre of everything at the moment. He breaks down the left again and splits the Copenhagen defence with a slide-rule pass to Anelka. The Frenchman was going wide(ish), but Wiland still needed to stick out an important left hand as Anelka tried to dink it over him.
20.05 Now that really should have been Chelsea’s opener. It was a move that started and ended with Yuri Zhirkov. He played Drogba in who in turn played a clever little backheel into Cole’s path. Rather than shoot (no pun intended), the left-full pulled it back to Zhirkov but he couldn’t convert. Great link play though.
20.02 One of my colleagues, Hugh O’Connell, is in a witty mood on the Twitter. “Great atmosphere at the Bridge tonight,” he tweets. “Thank god for away fans huh?” It could be worse – we could be at the Emirates.
19.59 It seems to be all Real at the moment over in Spain, but all it takes is a goal from Lyon to turn things on their head.
19.57 That was very un-Ronaldo-like (it’s a word, ok). He’s set free down the left wing but as he tries to thread it through to Benzema, he overhits his pass and Lloris gobbles it up. Meanwhile, Drogba forces a save from Wiland from 25 yards out.
19.55 Could’ve been an opener there for Chelski. Ashley Cole plays a lovely one-two with Drogba, but when he’s set free, there’s nobody for him to cut the ball back to and he ends up blasting wastefully into the side-netting. Where was the support?
19.53 Copenhagen have a free on the edge of the Chelsea box … but it hits the wall and the danger is cleared. Copenhagen have started brightly enough though – Chelsea need to be careful that they don’t go into Man United mode here.
19.52 An early chance for Madrid. Marcelo drills one in but Lloris gets down at his near post to knock it behind for a corner.
19.49 Brian Foran has been in touch via Facebook to advise us of the wisdom of backing a Chelsea/Madrid/Aberdeen treble. Interesting prospect.
19.47 Just the one bet for me tonight. It would be really typical if I had to stay late to cover extra time, so I’ve gone for 1-1 in the game between Madrid and Lyon. There hasn’t been extra time in any of the last 16 matches so far, has there?
19.46 And we’re off. The travelling Copenhagen support are in fine voice. Fair play to them.
19.45 There’s a moment’s silence in both Spain and London for the victims of last week’s earthquake in Japan.
19.37 Meanwhile, Real have been boosted by the return of C-Ron / CR7 / “the fake Ronaldo” (delete as applicable) following two games on the sidelines. Lyon welcome back Gourcuff and Briand. I like Gourcuff, as I’m sure you will be well aware by 9:30ish this evening.
19.35 So, the big team news from Stamford Bridge is that Fernando Torres has been dropped to the bench with Ancelotti preferring the sullen duo of Drogba and Anelka to lead his line. Poor old Torres – is his goalless streak destined to continue for another evening?
19.34 And here’s how they’ll line out in Madrid
Real Madrid: Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Carvalho, Marcelo, Khedira, Alonso, Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo, Benzema. Subs: Adan, Diarra, Granero, Canales, Arbeloa, Albiol, Adebayor.
Lyon: Lloris, Reveillere, Cris, Lovren, Cissokho, Briand, Gourcuff, Toulalan, Kallstrom, Delgado, Lopez. Subs: Vercoutre, Diakhate, Pjanic, Kolodzieczak, Gomis, Gonalons, Pied.
19.33 Here are the teams for Chelsea vs Copenhagen
Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Lampard, Zhirkov, Anelka, Drogba. Subs: Turnbull, Essien, Torres, Malouda, Ferreira, Kalou, McEachran.
FC Copenhagen: Wiland, Wendt, Jorgensen, Antonsson, Bengtsson, Bolanos, Claudemir, Kvist, Vingaard, Gronkjaer, Ndoye. Subs: Christensen, Bergvold, Santin, Kristensen, Zohore, Hooiveld, Delaney.
Opening Salvo Evening all. Who got cleaned out by the bookies today? Just us? Liars, each and every one of you.
Fortunately, there’s a great night of sport ahead to keep our minds off today’s gambling losses. It should be a fairly routine evening in west London for Chelsea – they hold a 2-0 lead from their trip to Copenhagen a fortnight ago.
Jose and Real may have it slightly tougher tonight. Though they bagged a priceless away goal in France two weeks ago, Lyon are no pushovers and they will come to the Bernabeu believing that they have every chance.
We’ll be back with the team news in a sec. Don’t worry – we won’t miss a thing.
