Chelsea complete English trio in quarters
Reuters - Wednesday 16 March 2011, 22:33
LONDON - Chelsea joined Manchester
United and Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League
quarter-finals on Wednesday, increasing the chances of an
English team reaching the final at Wembley Stadium.
The last eight also includes Real Madrid and Barcelona from
Spain, champions Inter Milan from Italy, Schalke 04 from Germany
and Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine with the draw for the quarter
and semi-finals taking place on Friday.
Chelsea made it through to the quarter-finals of Europe's
premier club competition for the sixth time in eight seasons.
"We are in the quarter-finals, so let's see the draw, but we
are confident, we have the experience," Chelsea goalkeeper Petr
Cech said.
With Spurs getting past AC Milan and three-times European
champions Manchester United beating Olympique Marseille, England
have gone one better than last season when only United and
Arsenal went through.
Spain's big two have advanced after Real finally made the
last eight following six seasons of failure at the first
knockout stage, thumping Olympique Lyon 3-0 at the Santiago
Bernebeu for a 4-1 aggregate win.
That kept alive the possibility of their manager Jose
Mourinho facing Inter, the club he took to the title last
season, or a return to Chelsea, where he won the Premier League
in 2005 and 2006.
Barcelona made sure of their place when they knocked out
Arsenal, ending England's hopes of getting all four of teams
into the quarters as they did in 2008 and 2009.
The quarter-final first legs will be played on April 5 and
6.