La Liga holders Real Madrid are all but through to the semi-finals of this seasons UEFA Champions League after a comprehensive 3-0 win over Galatasaray at the Bernabeu in the first leg of their quarter-final tie on Wednesday night.
The Turkish giants were undone by some lackadaisical defending throughout what was an incredibly open game of football, and the hosts had the quality to punish any mistake with Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain all getting themselves on the score sheet.
Galatasaray's attacking philosophy was on obvious early on, with Jose Mourinho's side exploiting the space they left at the back with just two minutes on the clock when Benzema headed just over from a dangerous Angel Di Maria cross.
It only took Madrid another 7 minutes to find the opening goal, and it was no surprise who got it.
Mesut Özil drove towards the penalty area from the right and played a perfect through ball past Emmanuel Eboue and into Ronaldo's path, the Portuguese talisman took the ball under his control with his right foot before chipping the ball perfectly beyond goalkeeper Fernando Muslera with his left.
In fairness to the visitors they responded well having gone a goal down, and their two best attempts came from the main sources of Champions League pedigree in their ranks. Didier Drogba first turned away from Raphael Varane before shooting over the bar, and then Wesley Sneijder had an ambitious effort just veer away from Diego Lopez's goal.
Real Madrid were able to counter attack most of these situations with consumate ease, Özil should've done better with his shot that went straight at Muslera after being set up by Ronaldo.
Mourinho's men didn't have to wait too much longer for their second goal, however, as Benzema doubled their lead just before the half hour mark with a neat finish having beautifully controlled Michael Essien's deep cross. Once again, Eboue's positioning was suspect.
The former Arsenal man did look to make amends for his sloppy defending just before the break, when a neat one-two with fellow Ivorian Drogba ended in a decent strike from Eboue that Lopez did well to keep out.
Half-time saw radical changes for Galatasaray as Sneijder was withdrawn for Gokhan Zan and Eboue was moved onto the right of a five-man midfield with the defence becoming a back three. It was a bold move by Fatih Terim, who desperately wanted an away goal to take back to Turkey, but wasn't a particularly effective one.
Madrid were still fashioning the better chances in the second half with both Ronaldo and Di Maria testing Muslera.
The third and final goal came from substitute Higuain, who met Xabi Alonso's 72nd minute free kick with a firm header to all but confirm his side's place in the last four.
Controversy often follows Jose Mourino and there was still time for two of his players to pick up preconceived yellow cards; both Sergio Ramos and Alonso will miss the second leg but will have a clean slate of cautions for the semi-final.
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