Soccer: Real set up Barca showdown

Real Madrid and Schalke easily avoided any miraculous comebacks in the Champions League soccer quarter-finals yesterday, following up their massive first-leg victories with more modest wins to advance to the last four.

Schalke beat defending champions Inter Milan 2-1 at home, advancing 7-3 on aggregate following their stunning victory last week in Italy.

Madrid never looked likely to give up its 4-0 advantage over Tottenham from the first leg, and a second-half error from Spurs goalkeeper Huerelho Gomes allowed Cristiano Ronaldo to score the only goal in a 1-0 win for the Spanish club at White Hart Lane.

Madrid will face arch rival Barcelona in the semifinals, while Schalke take on Manchester United.

"Let's see what happens," Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said. "A semi is a semi and anything can happen."

While Inter may have held out faint hope of overturning the deficit, Raul all but snuffed it out when he gave Schalke the lead in the 44th minute, leaving the Italians needing five goals to advance. While Thiago Motta equalised for Inter in the 49th, Benedikt Howedes completed the surprising rout by netting the winner in the 81st as Schalke reached its first Champions League semifinal.

At White Hart Lane, Madrid resisted early pressure from Tottenham, which had a goal disallowed for offside and a penalty appeal waved off in the first half.

Ronaldo then deflated the hosts when he sent a swerving shot from nearly 30 metres that went straight at Gomes, who fumbled a routine catch and watched the ball go over his shoulder before bouncing slowly over the line. The blunder handed Ronaldo his 40th goal of the season.

Striker Roman Pavlyuchenko had a chance to equalise in the 58th when Rafael van der Vaart picked out the Russian with a cross into the area, but his header went high. Jermain Defoe then tested Casillas with a hard shot from outside the area in the 63rd, forcing the Spain goalkeeper to dive low and deflect the ball out for a corner, but the result was never in doubt.

"We lost it to a better team but we're disappointed to go out," Tottenham winger Gareth Bale said.

In Germany, Schalke waited patiently for chances to counter-attack, and Jose Manuel Jurado set Raul free with a ball through a huge opening in Inter's defence. The former Madrid striker calmly rounded Julio Cesar to take his Champions League record tally to 71 goals.

Motta slotted home the equaliser after a corner, but it was too little too late. Schalke used another counterattack to get the winner, with Raul sending a long ball behind Inter's defence for Howedes to drive home. AP