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Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho hopes to avoid
former clubs Inter Milan and Chelsea in the quarter-finals of the
Champions League after helping the Spanish giants end their
miserable run of exits at the last-16 stage.
Madrid had been dumped out at the first knockout round in each
of the last six seasons, but the nine-time winners finally got that
monkey off their back by getting past Lyon - their conquerors last
season.
Having drawn the first leg 1-1 in France, Madrid completed a 4-1
aggregate victory thanks to goals from Marcelo, Karim Benzema and
Angel Di Maria in Wednesday night's second leg at the Bernabeu.
Mourinho, looking to win the Champions League with a third club,
was pleased with his team's performance but played down the fact
Madrid had finally reached the last eight after years of
disappointment.
"Lyon are a good team, one of the best in this year's Champions
League, but we deserved to win. We played a very complete game and
we are in the quarter-finals," said the Portuguese.
"I'm happy and quite relaxed because it's normal that we've
qualified for the quarters. Some day we had to get through - what
wasn't normal was Madrid not getting through.
"Not getting through would have been a failure because Madrid
always think about going further than the last 16. We're going in
the right direction and the titles are going to arrive."
Looking ahead to Friday's draw for the next stage, Mourinho
would rather not face his two most recent employers prior to last
summer's move to Madrid - Chelsea and reigning European champions
Inter.
"I prefer to avoid Inter and Chelsea because, emotionally, it's
difficult to play against ex-teams," he said.
"If we get them, we get them. We're professionals. If I have to
face those who were my people, I will do it, but I will be obliged
to prepare myself more psychologically than against other teams
that aren't in my heart."
Madrid had to wait until eight minutes before half-time to make
the breakthrough against Lyon, when full-back Marcelo scored a fine
goal.
The home side then dominated the second period, and further
goals from in-form striker Benzema - who took his tally to nine in
seven goals after netting against his former club - and Di Maria
sealed a convincing triumph.
Lyon coach Claude Puel felt Madrid were deserved winners,
saying: "I think we did things well in the first half, especially
in attack, and we had a certain amount of possession.
"We played quite well and seemed to be quite dangerous. However,
we gave them too many opportunities, too many easy balls.
"In the second half, the second goal was very bad for us. We
gave Real Madrid a big gift with that, and from that moment on we
didn't have many opportunities. We didn't know how to improve our
level of play.
"We came up against a very good team and all I can do is
congratulate Real Madrid because they deserved the win."
Regarding Madrid's chances of going all the way, Puel said: "I
would say that Real Madrid can make it to the end.
"They have high individual quality, very good players with good
acceleration, and if they carry on playing so strong in defence
they have every chance to get to the final stages, but the path
ahead is very long."
