Real passes first knock-out test in Champions League

Real Madrid fans woke up on Thursday morning to a "normal" world, one in which their team will enter today's draw for the quarterfinals of the Champions League after six straight exits at the last-16 stage of Europe's elite club tournament. The man who conjured both the change in fortune and the "normality" epithet to describe the feat is an abnormal coach: José Mourinho.

"It had to happen one day," the Portuguese said, smiling broadly, when asked whether the "Mourinho effect" had been at work in Wednesday night's convincing 3-0 victory over Olympique Lyon. But the bluff, modest style is not his; far more convincing were his closing remarks as he explained how his players can feel how much he enjoyed "big ties, big challenges," and that this takes the pressure of those ebullient Bernabéu expectations off their shoulders.

Mourinho hopes to avoid Chelsea and Inter Milan for "emotional reasons"

They limit themselves to carrying out the coach's instructions, which, so far, have led them to sweep almost all before them in the league - barring a sole humiliation at the hands of the imperious Barcelona - get past the European block and even reach the King's Cup final for the first time in almost a decade. That was another statistic Mourinho identified as "not normal" when he arrived in Madrid last summer.

When Real's players walked out of the tunnel on Wednesday, it was also important that Cristiano Ronaldo, the embodiment of his Portuguese compatriot's swagger on the field, was among them after missing two weeks with a muscle problem. Ronaldo was immediately at the center of the Madrid offense, an early back heel followed by a strong run, which provoked a foul. His free kick from afar was wayward, momentum was momentarily lost, and it is true that some of the fluency in Real's most recent displays during Ronaldo's absence was missing.

He shoots when there are teammates open, and he makes so many runs on goal that he causes all-or-nothing passes to be attempted when a move has barely started. But it was Ronaldo's self-belief that was required most of all as Real tried to beat Lyon for the first time in the competition after a 1-1 result in France had left the tie up in the air.

And Ronaldo was on hand to supply a delicious wall pass to Marcelo, the Brazilian dribbling around one more defender before shooting Real's opener past the brilliant goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who later made several fine saves to keep the score respectable. His defense let him down, however, and both Real's second-half goals stemmed from long balls which were not dealt with properly. Karim Benzema and Ángel di María buried the contest and Madrid's lingering last-16 jitters, with Mesut Özil the home team's chief mischief maker as spaces began to open up.

Despite December's 5-0 confirmation that, Mourinho or no Mourinho, Barcelona remains on a higher plane than its national rival, the coach said he would prefer to draw the 2009 winner today than his previous employers, Chelsea, or current champ Inter Milan, for "emotional reasons."

Common sense, however, says that Barça is the worst possible fate awaiting one of the other seven survivors, and Ronaldo perhaps struck a more shrewd balance between bravado and realism when he invited either Manchester United, his former employer, or Raúl's Schalke 04 to pay a visit. The truth is that there are no easy options, with the relative novices of Shakhtar Donetsk and Tottenham Hostspur both impressing in eliminating Roma and AC Milan respectively.