APOEL 0-3 Real Madrid: Kaka makes major impact from bench while Benzema nets twice in comfortable victory for Mourinho's men

Second-half goals, two from Karim Benzema and one from Kaka, gave Real Madrid a huge away win as the club beat APOEL Nicosia 3-0 at GSP Stadium.

A diving header from Benzema, a cool side-footed finish from Brazilian Kaka and another easy finish for the French striker banished any Cypriot hopes of a famous draw, as the Spanish side's quality eventually shone through.


With APOEL playing the biggest game in club history, it was perhaps no surprise that it came out of the blocks at full pelt, and really tried to put Jose Mourinho's side under extreme pressure early on.

It didn't take long though before Madrid was reestablishing the natural order of things, and started to dominate possession and create chances. Within the space of three minutes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and Benzema all had half-chances, but it wasn't until the 15th minute where it had its first real opportunity to open the scoring. A ball from Ozil played in Fabio Coentrao, but the Portuguese fullback snatched at his shot and fired wide from inside the area.

The Cypriot champions were coping exceptionally well with the relentless wave of Madrid attacks, but they very nearly found themselves a goal down on 33 minutes. A beautiful ball across the six-yard box from Nuri Sahin evaded the APOEL keeper Dionisios Chiotis, found Benzema unmarked at the far post, but the French international somehow managed to miss the target and slice his shot over the bar.

The remainder of the half fizzled out, as APOEL failed to offer support to the increasingly isolated Ailton up front, and the nine-time European champions just couldn't find a way past the resolute Cypriot backline.

The teams re-emerged for the second half, and whatever Mourinho said to his side at the break seemed to work, as Los Blancos increased their intensity and attacking impetus during the opening exchanges. Ozil, Sahin and Sami Khedira were creating some wonderful midfield triangles, but as with the first 45, Ivan Jovanovic's side was defending at its very best to block any attempts at its goal.

With an hour gone, the Spanish side had completed 416 passes compared to APOEL's 94; but it took until the 74th minute for the Spanish side's class to truly show. Kaka put in a dangerous ball from the left, found the head of Benzema, who got down low and slotted the ball into the back of the net from six yards.

The tiring APOEL legs were starting to show, and seven minutes later, it was two. Again down the left, Marcelo this time got to the byline, played it back, and there was Kaka to coolly pass it in, and really sink all Cypriot hopes.

And right on 90 minutes, Madrid took the game out if sight. A burst from midfield by Ronaldo took him to the edge of the area, he played it square to Ozil, who passed it first time across the six yard box, for Benzema to tap in.

The Spanish giants looked for four, but had to settle for just the three away goals, as the they go into the second leg next Wednesday at Santiago Bernabeu.