19.37 – Good evening, sports fans. It’s the short trip to Stamford Bridge for tonight’s European action, where Chelsea hold a 1-0 lead over Benfica.

10 minutes until kick-off so we better get the line-ups in. According to Eamon Dunphy, Roberto Di Matteo has put out “a good team, not a great team”:

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou, Torres, Mata. Subs: Turnbull, Essien, Drogba, Meireles, Ferreira, Sturridge, Cahill.

Benfica: Artur Moraes, Maxi Pereira, Javi Garcia, Emerson, Capdevila, Witsel, Matic, Bruno Cesar, Aimar, Cardozo, Gaitan. Subs: Eduardo, Nolito, Djalo, Nelson Oliveira, Rodrigo Moreno, Saviola, Andre Almeida.

19.43 – Frank Lampard and Branislav Ivanovic return for the home side in place of Paolo Ferreira and Raul Meireles while Fernando Torres keeps his place ahead of Didier Drogba.

Benfica are missing captain Luisao and Jardel, so former Villarreal defender Joan Capdevila and Serbian international Nemanja Matic, who spent two years at Chelsea, come in.

The teams are out on the pitch so we’re not far off now.

19.49 – We’re underway and the early exchanges see Benfica earn a corner after a neat exchange between Axel Witsel and Pablo Aimar, who looks in the mood.

19.58 – Ten minutes have flown in and it’s the visitors who are doing most of the attacking. Chelsea retrieve the ball however, and Juan Mata looks to get his compatriot Torres away early but over-plays the pass.

The Spanish playmaker then latches onto the end of a Salomon Kalou through-ball and shoots past Artur but is correctly deemed offside.

20.05 – Ashley Cole puts in a timely tackle on Cesar, who takes a heavy fall on his shoulder. Plays is stopped while he receives treatment but the Brazilian is back on the field and will soldier on.

Benfica hitman Oscar Cardozo is the first played into Damir Skomina’s book, meanwhile, after a late tackle on Luiz.

20.22 – Mata is penalised for a high foot. Aimar with the free-kick, but it’s easily cut out and the Blues have a free out.

Possession looks like this after 35 minutes:

• Chelsea 45%
• Benfica 55%

20.28 – RED CARD FOR MAXI PEREIRA

The Benfica skipper lasts less than a half and is given a second yellow and his marching orders for a studs up on Mikel. The Uruguayan had been given his first for protesting about the penalty.

20.33 – Half-time: Chelsea 1-0 Benfica (2-0 on agg)

Last moments see Torres cut-back snuffed out and an Aimar free-kick headed away by Terry. Di Matteo couldn’t have asked for much more from the half, and his side aren’t even playing particularly well.

Terry throws himself in front of Aimar’s strike. Credit: Sean Dempsey/PA Wire/Press Association Images

20.58 – Torres turns Emerson inside out and drives the ball from 18 yards but a nick sends it behind for a corner. El Nino has scored just two goals, which both came in the 5-0 drubbing of Genk back in October, in this year’s Champions League.

21.16 – Twenty minutes to play and another Chelsea chance goes begging. Mata makes a run through the middle and is found by Kalou but the former Valencia man is a couple of yards wide of the far post.

Rodrigo, who came through Real Madrid’s youth team and spent a season on loan at Bolton, is on for Bruno Cesar.

Djalo has failed to hit the target again, this time with a header.

21.23 – Good old Madrid won’t let us down though. They concede one from Gustavo Manduca but put themselves five goals ahead soon after through Ronaldo, who gets his second.

Mikel is finally booked after a half dozen fouls and before Aimar can only find the safe hands of Cech, Raul Meireles joins the action for Juan Mata after a decent shift.

Here’s that Kaka goal by the way:



YouTube credit: SportsTheGame

21.57 –

Everyone’s got unfinished business with them (Barcelona). They’re the greatest team in the world. They have been and still are.

That game (in 2009) is still in our minds but this is a different year and we have to try to beat them. They’ll be favourites but we’ve got belief. We know we’ll have to perform to our best to beat them but we can believe we can do it,” – Frank Lampard

22.09 – So the semi-finals look like this:

Real Madrid v Bayern Munich

Chelsea v Barcelona

Ties to be played April 17/18 and 24/25.