Captain Steven Gerrard scored twice as Liverpool stormed into the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 4-0 victory over Real Madrid yesterday.

Protecting a 1-0 first-leg lead, Fernando Torres paved the way for a comfortable night by finding the target after 16 minutes before Gerrard scored either side of the break. Andrea Dossena rounded off the comprehensive victory in the last minute.

It will renew manager Rafa Benitez's hopes of repeating the 2005 title triumph to deflect attention from his inability to end the club's 19-year wait for an English title.

The scintillating display will also raise Benitez's stock at Madrid, where he served in coaching roles for a decade.

With Liverpool's and Madrid's domestic title quests flagging, progress in Europe gained a heightened sense of urgency for both clubs.

Only the home side showed it, though, taking total control from the outset.

Torres had only been expected make a late cameo if it was essential, but he started two weeks after sustaining an ankle injury in the first leg and came close to scoring after just three minutes.

Bayern Munich have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League by crushing Sporting Lisbon 7-1.

Lukas Podolski scored twice as Bayern completed a 12-1 victory on aggregate.

Podolski scored in the seventh and 34th minute of Tuesday's match, Sporting's Anderson Polga scored an own goal in the 39th, before Joao Moutinho pulled one back for Sporting in the 42nd.

Bastian Schweinsteiger made it 4-1 in the 43rd and Mark van Bommel got the fifth in the 74th. Miroslav Klose converted a penalty in the 82nd and Thomas Mueller completed the rout in the 90th.

Didier Drogba scored a late equalizer to give Chelsea a 2-2 draw at Juventus and take the London side into the quarter-finals. Chelsea took the tie 3-2 on aggregate after their 1-0 win in the first leg.

Drogba struck with seven minutes remaining, sliding in to score from a low cross from Juliano Belletti

Vincenzo Iaquinta opened the scoring for Juventus on 19 minutes, but Michael Essien, in his first match for six months brought Chelsea level in first half injury time.

Del Piero gave the home side some hope when he scored with a penalty on 73 minutes to make the score 2-1, but Claudio Ranieri's team played the last 20 minutes with 10 men after Giorgio Chiellini received his second yellow card of the night on 70 minutes.

Ariel Ibagaza scored one goal and set up another to lead Villarreal into the quarter-finals with a 2-1 win over Panathinaikos that gave the Spanish team a 3-2 aggregate victory.

Ibagaza put his team in the lead in the 49th minute, shooting in a cross from Joan Capdevila, and later passed for substitute Joseba Llorente to score Villarreal's second goal in the 70th.

In between, Vangelis Mantzios had equalized for the Greek team by heading in a corner kick from Giorgos Karagounis in the 55th.

Giuseppe Rossi, who provided a constant threat throughout the match at the Olympic Stadium, started the move that led to the first goal. The American-born Italian ran the ball up the middle and then fed it wide to Capdevila, whose pass allowed Ibagaza to fire home.

Ibagaza and Rossi were again involved in the winner, with Rossi running off to the left to draw a defender and Ibagaza passing to Llorente on the right.

Panathinaikos called for a penalty in the 67th when Fabricio Fuentes tangled with Dimitris Salpingidis in the area, but Swiss referee Massimo Busacca awarded Villarreal a goal kick.