Real Madrid have one foot in the Champions League quarter-finals thanks to a 2-0 win over AS Roma in Italy on Wednesday night.
Zinedine Zidane oversaw a victory in his first European match as manager of the Spanish giants who had Cristiano Ronaldo and Jese among the goals in the second half to see off the challenge of Luciano Spalletti's outfit.
It was a slow burner of an affair that became much more animated in the second half, particularly after Ronaldo had given Real the lead in the 57th minute.
The Portuguese ace, who was criticised for not scoring enough away goals in the pre-match press conference, raced onto a ball from Marcelo before producing a clever flick-back to get around Alessandro Florenzi and then curling his effort in over Wojciech Szczesny with help from a slight deflection.
The goal was Ronaldo's 44th away from home in the Champions League, nine more than any other player.
The second goal came in the 86th minute when Jese, who had replaced James Rodriguez only minutes earlier, received a pass from Luka Modric in Real's defensive half before taking the opportunity to run at Roma's goal with Lucas Digne holding off him.
The 22-year-old raced all the way into the box and then fired between the legs of Digne, across Szczesny and into the far bottom corner for his first goal in Europe's premier club competition.
Earlier, Real had one of the best chances of the first half when Ronaldo flicked to Marcelo whose volley, after turning his body inside out, fell just wide of Szczesny's left post.
Mo Salah and Florenzi were causing plenty of havoc down the right flank, making life extremely difficult for the advancing Real defence, but were unable to place any real pressure on Keylor Navas' goal.
Later on, with the score at 1-0, Roma sub Edin Dzeko had a golden opportunity to level it up but Raphael Varane managed to get a toe on his angled effort which was fired into the side netting with the goal at his mercy.
Moments later, Roma had a big shout for a penalty when Dani Carvajal slid in on Florenzi, who had arrived to the ball first and was taken down, but the home side's protests were waved away by Czech referee Pavel Kralovec.
Jese then delivered the killer blow for the visitors who will head back to the Spanish capital knowing that no team has advanced in the knockout stages after losing the first leg at home by two or more goals.
Real will host Roma at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday, March 8 as they look to progress to the final eight of the competition for the sixth straight season.
2015/16 UEFA Champions League - Round of 16 first leg
AS Roma (ITA): 0
Real Madrid (SPN): 2 (Cristiano Ronaldo 57', Jese 86')
Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy - 55,612
