Watch out Europe: Real Madrid are moving smoothly into top gear. The Spanish giants delivered a masterful performance to destroy an outclassed Schalke 6-1, effectively guaranteeing their place in the quarter finals.
The front three of Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo were all outstanding and grabbed two goals apiece, but this was very much a team performance and the perfect preparation for Sunday’s La Liga title showdown against neighbours Atletico.
The early stages were well contested but Madrid soon took the lead. Bale was the instigator, driving towards the edge of Schalke’s box before finding Ronaldo, whose return flick deflected off Felipe Santana and fell kindly for Benzema, allowing the French striker to confidently sweep home.
Schalke should have levelled when Jefferson Farfan advanced down the right and delivered a cross to Julian Draxler, whose close-range effort was brilliantly saved by Iker Casillas.
It should still have been a goal as the rebound fell straight to Max Meyer, but the youngster panicked and skewed his shot badly over the bar.
From that moment, Madrid never looked back and the remainder of the game was simply a question of how many they would score.
The second soon arrived courtesy of a superb solo effort from Bale, who received the ball on the right of the penalty area and jinked past two challenges before stabbing a low shot inside the post with the outside of his left foot.
Then Ronaldo took over, with the Portuguese forward eager to mark his return from suspension by joining his fellow forwards on the scoresheet.
He was exceptionally unlucky after half an hour, racing goalwards from the halfway line and firing a low right-footed shot which beat home keeper Ralf Fahrmann but rebounded off the left post.
Fahrmann then twice came to his beleaguered team’s rescue before the interval, on both occasions denying Ronaldo with his legs after astute passes from Angel Di Maria and Benzema.
Casillas made a routine save from Kevin-Prince Boateng early in the second half as Schalke sought an unlikely comeback, but the visitors were attacking with pace and incisiveness, always looking capable of adding to their goal tally.
Indeed, it didn’t take long for Ronaldo to notch his much-threatened goal, with the Champions League’s leading marksman recording his tenth strike in this season’s competition by bamboozling Joel Matip with a triple stepover and crunching a left-footed strike into the far corner.
And then it was four, with Benzema adding his second goal by bursting inside from the right wing, playing a delicious exchange of passes with Ronaldo and rounding the hapless Fahrmann to score from a narrow angle.
The fifth goal duly followed when Sergio Ramos stepped forward from defence and slid a perfect pass into the stride of Bale, who calmly curled a left-footed strike into the far corner.
Schalke’s pain increased when Ronaldo added his second after waltzing around Fahrmann and slotting home, before Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s magnificent volley gave the home fans something to cheer in stoppage time.