European champions Real Madrid and Germany's Bayern Munich will meet each in the semifinals of the Champions League after scoring home victories over Galatasaray and Manchester United.
Real, trailing Galatasaray 3-2 from the second leg, crushed the Turkish side 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu for a 5-3 aggregate victory whileBayern held their nerve to beat Manchester United 2-1 in an edgy return leg at the Olympic Stadium for a 3-1 aggregate success.
Real will now face Bayern in the semifinals over the first two weeks of May, while Leeds United, who beat Deportivo Coruna 3-2 on aggregate intheir quarter-final on Tuesday, will face Valencia, who knocked out Arsenal on the away goals rule on Tuesday after they finished 2-2 onaggregate.
The pairings mean that a repeat of last year's all-Spanish final in which Real beat Valencia 3-0 in Paris could occur in Milan in this year's final onMay 23rd
Real raced into a 3-0 halftime lead against Galatasaray with two goals from Raul and one for Ivan Helguera.
Raul opened the scoring after 15 minutes and added the third in the 36th after Helguera had made it 2-0 after 29 minutes.
Those two strikes took Raul's Champions League tally to seven this campaign, making him the highest scorer in the competition this season.
He also took his all-time tally to 28 in the competition -- the highest of any individual player since the Champions League began in 1992.
In Munich, where Bayern led 1-0 from the first leg against Manchester United, the hosts got off to a flying start when Brazilian Elber slid themahead after five minutes.
Poor United defending allowed Mehmet Scholl to make it 2-0 on the night, 3-0 on aggregate, five minutes before halftime.
Ryan Giggs gave United some hope when he lobbed goalkeeper Oliver Kahn after 49 minutes but despite creating a whole series of chances therewere no more goals and Bayern held on to avenge their defeat by United in the 1999 European Cup final.
Reuters