Wednesday is nearly over, which means that the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal round is in the books. With all teams having completed their games, all but one took care of business as expected.

That team would be Real Madrid. After winning in impressive fashion their La Liga match up with Barcelona in El Clásico on Saturday, they failed to show up on Wednesday in Wolfsburg. Or was the result to be expected?

Anyone who has followed this edition of Galaticos knows that they are prone to thinking their recognizable names win the match instead of their play. Therefore after snapping Barça's 39 match unbeaten streak, they surely must have been in the clouds before they stepped onto the pitch. Their stars were inconsistent, and their backline again turned vulnerable, as has commonly been the case throughout the year. 

In contrast to Barcelona, Real Madrid's stars tried playing hero ball and winning the game by themselves. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale failed the team by trying to do too much by themselves, not considering that Wolfsburg have gotten this far in the tournament for a reason. 

Now they head back home for the second leg next week down 2-0. Luckily Ronaldo has been nothing short of stellar playing at the Santiago Bernabeu, and los blancos enjoy a bit of an uptick in play when in front of the home crowd. Zinedine Zindane took the blame for the loss Wednesday, but he can't get out on the pitch with his team - as much as he probably would like to.

Spain's other two teams left in the competition played each other at the Camp Nou in Barcelona Tuesday, with Barcelona beating Atlético Madrid 2-1. Luis Suarez scored twice in 11 minutes and the Catalans were aided by Fernando Torres being sent off in the 36th minute. However Torres scored a goal before being sent off, which being an away goal was vital for the second leg that they will play at home.

Although both Madrid squads lost their first legs, neither is completely out of it as they both come back to the Spanish capital for their second leg matches.

In other action, Manchester City and PSG ended in a 2-2 draw in Paris, and Bayern Munich won 1-0 on their home turf, leaving the door open for Benfica to overtake them heading back to Lisbon. That leaves for a suspenseful second leg next week as no team is out of striking distance heading back to their home stadiums. Should make for great soccer.

Photo: Flickr