CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Schalke fire past Valencia

FC Schalke 04 have brushed past Spanish outfit Valencia to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals.

Following the 1-1 draw in Valencia three weeks ago, things looked grim for the home side when Los Che opened the scoring in the 16th minute through Ricardo Costa.

But Schalke fought back thanks to goals from Jefferson Farfan and Mario Gavranovic either side of half-time before Farfan put on the finishing touches with a late goal to make it 3-1 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate.

Uefa Champions League – Round of 16 second leg
FC Schalke (GER): 3 (Jefferson Farfan 40’/90+4’, Mario Gavranovic 52’)
Valencia (ESP): 1 (Ricardo Costa 16’)

Venue: Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen
Crowd: 55,000
Referee: Arne Eriksson
Yellow cards: SCH - Peer Kluge 28’, Sergio Escudero 47’, Jefferson Farfan 74’
VAL - Jeremy Mathieu 83’

With the game evenly poised at 1-1 following the first leg in Valencia, the visitors took the lead in just the 16th minute when Ricardo Costa headed home from close range after some brilliant lead-up work from Mehmet Topal whose shot was deflected in by his teammate for the opener.

However, the Germans hit back when Peruvian Jefferson Farfan curled a free-kick into the top corner to make it 1-1 in the 40th minute before they took the lead 12 minutes later when Mario Gavranovic slid the ball in after a Farfan shot, the ball hitting both posts before falling in.

Valencia attempted to pull themselves back into the contest but were unable to pierce the Schalke defence as Raul went about trying to wrap up the match against some of his countrymen but it took Farfan to add a third when he was free on goal in injury time and slotted past Vicente Guaita to end it all for the Spaniards.

Schalke
Manuel Neuer (gk) – Atsuto Uchida, Benedikt Howedes, Per Metzelder, Sergio Escudero – Jefferson Farfan, Peer Kluge (Sarpei 82’), Joel Matip (Papadopoulos 60’), Jose Manuel Jurado (Draxler 76’) – Raul, Mario Gavranovic

Subs - Mathias Schober (gk), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (60’), Julian Draxler (76’), Hans Sarpei (82’), Edu, Angelos Charisteas, Ali Karimi,

Valencia
Vicente Guaita (gk) – Bruno Saltor, David Navarro, Ricardo Costa, Jeremy Mathieu – Ever Banega (Costa 71’), Mehmet Topal, Joaquin Sanchez, Pablo Hernandez (Soldado 64’) – Juan Mata, Aritz Aduriz (Jonas 75’)

Subs - Cesar Sanchez (gk), Roberto Soldado (64’), Tino Costa (71’), Jonas Oliveira (75’), David Albelda, Vicente Rodriguez, Jordi Alba