Real Madrid & Olympiacos in the last 16

Real Madrid 3-1 Lazio

Real Madrid CF advanced to the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League as Group C winners following a comfortable 3-1 victory against S.S. Lazio at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Early goals
Bernd Schuster admitted his team were "up for this one" before the match and Madrid proved as good as their coach's word with first-half goals from Julio Baptista, Raúl González and Robinho making the game safe before Goran Pandev pulled one back for Lazio with ten minutes remaining.

Lazio spirited
The Rome side needed to win to have any chance of progressing and their coach Delio Rossi appeared to have instilled sufficient belief in his players who matched Madrid in terms of possession and confidence on the ball in the early stages. Tommaso Rocchi would surely have done better in the opening moments if slightly better placed when looking to collect a pass from Gaby Mudingayi inside the Madrid area. After eight minutes Rocchi fed Pandev who struck high and wide of Iker Casillas from eight metres.

Madrid advantage
With the away fans in full voice Raúl sounded a warning when his header from a Wesley Sneijder corner struck the upright and Madrid's opener was not long in coming. It arrived on 13 minutes when the in-form Baptista, selected ahead of Guti, received a short pass from Robinho out wide. He paced along the edge of the area and struck a gliding shot that flew wide of Marco Ballotta and into the corner of the goal. Just two minutes later Lazio's hopes of reaching the knockout phase were all but ended when Raúl outjumped Cristián Ledesma to head in his all-time competition-leading 59th UEFA Champions League goal.

Madrid in command
The home crowd were roaring their approval for what they thought was another Raúl goal after 21 minutes but their attention was soon diverted to the raised flag of the referee's assistant. A poor Mahamadou Diarra backheader which went straight to Pandev gave Lazio the chance to reduce the gap but the Macedonian striker's shot hit the side-netting. Apart from that scare Madrid were coasting and they made it 3-0 when Robinho played a one-two with Ruud van Nistelrooy before having the easiest of tasks in poking in from close in front of the visitors' goal.

Madrid 3-1 Lázio

Foregone conclusion
The second half began with both sides dropping the pace a little. Madrid introduced Arjen Robben and Guti with Robinho and Sneijder making way. Robben fired a shot at goal which Ballotta did well to save before, on 67 minutes, Madrid launched a fine counter-attacking move which almost ended with Van Nistelrooy converting from close range.

Lazio consolation
Defeat would leave Lazio bottom of the section and bring their European season to an end, but they made sure they gifted their vociferous travelling support a goal to celebrate with ten minutes to go. Rocchi's curling pass towards the far post was followed all the way by Pandev who stretched to deflect the ball into the net. Lazio might have had a second in the closing moments but Casillas saved Rocchi's penalty and Roberto Baronio's follow up as Madrid finished the night as they had begun it - on a high.

Iker

Olympiacos 3-0 Bremen

Olympiacos CFP reached the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in nine seasons after an inspirational display from Ieroklis Stoltidis helped the Greek champions to a stunning victory over Group C rivals Werder Bremen in Athens.

Second place secured
Midfielder Stoltidis, who shares his name with the mythical Greek warrior Hercules, proved the hero of the hour, scoring twice and providing an assist for Darko Kovacević as Panagiotis Lemonis's team advanced from the group stage for the first time since 1998/99 when they were quarter-finalists. Olympiacos go through as the second-placed team in the group while Thomas Schaaf's Bremen have the consolation of a UEFA Cup place having finished third following Real Madrid CF's 3-1 win over S.S. Lazio.

Stoltidis opener
A tentative opening had been predicted by both coaches yet Bremen, who needed the victory, could have scored as early as the eighth minute when Diego's snapshot was saved by Antonios Nikopolidis and defender Anastasios Pantos did enough to ensure Boubacar Sanogo fired wide from the rebound. This sparked Olympiacos to life and four minutes later the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium erupted when Stoltidis opened the scoring with a superb long-range effort, collecting Lomana LuaLua's pass before unleashing a fierce drive from 20 metres past Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese and into the bottom right-hand corner.

LuaLua lively
The lively LuaLua then went close with two snapshots in the space of four minutes before Bremen reacted with Tim Borowski's long-range shot. Borowski then exposed the vulnerability of Nikopolidis with another effort which the home keeper spilled before rescuing the situation with a sprawling save as Sanogo closed in.

Kovacević denied
Olympiacos suffered a setback when Christos Patsatzoglou went off injured midway through the first half to be replaced by youngster Konstantinos Mendrinos, yet the hosts continued to press forward. LuaLua burst clear again a minute before the half-hour but the resulting lay-off failed to find Luciano Galletti and Wiese smothered the ball. Although Naldo, with a header, then Daniel Jensen, with a shot, both threatened as Bremen sought a way back into the game, Kovacević was guilty of wasting a glorious chance shortly before the break. LuaLua's sublime pass sent him clear down the left but the Serbian veteran shot straight at Wiese.

Olympiakos v Werder Bremen

Bremen threaten
A strong start to the second half from Bremen almost yielded an equaliser but Naldo's header was cleared off the line by Mendrinos following Diego's corner. The tension levels rose as the Bundesliga team applied the pressure and Nikopolidis had to be alert to block Sanogo's header from point-blank range just after the hour. Sanogo volleyed just wide minutes later but that proved to be his last contribution as he was replaced by Hugo Almeida. The change was in vain, however, as Olympiacos struck their second after 70 minutes.

Perfect cross
Stoltidis made another vital contribution, sending over a perfect cross from the left for Kovacević, who rose above Naldo to score with a towering header. Stoltidis then capped a flawless display four minutes later by firing home Kovacević's knockdown from Galletti's right-wing corner. Vassilis Torosidis almost made it 4-0 late on but his lob was pawed away by Wiese.