Real Madrid dominated Lyon in the return leg of their Champions League tie, defeating the French side 3-0 (4-1 on aggregate). The victory put Real into the competition's quarterfinals for the first time in seven years. Here are three things that we learned.
1. Money can't buy you love
Jose Mourinho professed his love for Marcelo in a press conference earlier in the season. When this was relayed to the Brazilian live on television, he chuckled and said, "Well, I love him too."
One of few players in a Real shirt on Wednesday night who was present at the club before the new Florentino Perez era, Marcelo escaped the cull the incumbent carried out to rid the Bernabeu of as much trace evidence of his predecessor as possible. Still only 22, the full-back is now one of Real's most valuable assets. Yet he cost the club a trifling six million euros in 2006. Marcelo was signed as an heir to Roberto Carlos and, particularly this season, has shown that he might even be better than his illustrious countryman. His beautifully executed goal on Wednesday was his first in the Champions League, but many more will come for the versatile Brazilian, who has found a place in the heart of the notoriously demanding Bernabeu crowd.
2. Don't underestimate the Special One
In a league largely unaccustomed to his own peculiar style, the Special One has had a resounding effect since he arrived to take charge of Real last year. But the Portuguese has done what no coach of the side has managed since 2004 -- when the original galacticos was in place -- in reaching the quarterfinals of Europe's elite club competition. In doing so, he also masterminded Real's first win over Lyon in the club's history.
Mourinho has a track record of delivering long-awaited titles to illustrious but bereft clubs -- Chelsea's first league title in half a decade; Inter's first European Cup in 45 years -- and in smashing the psychological Champions League barrier with Real, he has taken a huge step toward his own stated goal of winning the trophy three times with three different clubs.
Although the league will largely be decided on a single game, April's Clasico at the Bernabeu, over a two-legged European tie Mourinho has few peers. Whichever team is drawn against Real on Friday when the draw comes out will not be overjoyed.
Despite institutional friction between Mourinho and Real's powers that be, as well as his predilection for polemic, the marriage between coach and club is set to enter a second honeymoon phase. Even if Mourinho falls short in Europe, he intimated before the match that he is not about to seek greener pastures: "The tenth [Champions League] will come naturally, not with obsession. We'll get there by working well, if not this season then next."
If winning be the food of love, Mourinho and Real will play on.
3. This is Karim's team -- at least right now
The much-maligned France striker arguably played his finest games for Real against Lyon. A goal ruled out for offside, the goal that sealed the tie, a strike that required an impossible save from Hugo Lloris and the goal that gave Real the lead in France.
Could this be Karim Benzema's defining moment?
Two in two Champions League knock-out matches and six in Real's last three league outings. Benzema's goal against Lyon on Wednesday brought his tally for the season to 20. Before January, the injured Gonzalo Higuain was sorely missed. After the arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor, Benzema was largely written off.
Either would do well to dislodge the Frenchman now. That Mourinho has been giving a two-striker system an airing is nothing but good news for Real supporters; Ronaldo, the team's top scorer by a country mile, does not need to play every minute of every game, as he had in the league before his injury. Real has a plan B and, when Higuain returns, a pretty handy plan C, too.
For now, Benzema's new-found custody of the A game might yet provide Real with a silver lining.