Leeds manager David O'Leary paid tribute to his players after their convincing defeat of Anderlecht earned them a place in the Champions League quarterfinals. With Real Madrid drawing 2-2 in Rome against Lazio, Leeds had done more than enough to secure passage to the next round and O'Leary was delighted with his players.
"All credit to the players because they earned this result," O'Leary said. "I'm delighted. A lot of things have been said and we all wanted to go out and do something about it. The best way is to do just that and prove some people wrong, and I think we did that tonight."
With Robbie Keane cup-tied, Smith was given the chance by O'Leary to make his mark and he did that with two goals. "That's (having Keane) not a bad thing because it has given us the chance to give him (Smith) a bit of a breather. He went off a bit, but he has come back in and done very well tonight."
Real Madrid also qualified after they drew 2-2 with Lazio in the Olympic Stadium in Rome. Lazio's exit leaves AC Milan as the only Italian side left in the competition.
A 50,000 crowd went wild after only three minutes when Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved gave Lazio a 1-0 lead, slotting the ball into the net between the legs of goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez.
As Argentine team-mates Diego Simeone and Hernan Crespo wasted chances to score Lazio's second goal, Real made it 1-1 on a fast counterattack which caught Lazio's defence wide open. Argentine forward Santiago Solar beat the offside trap before slotting home the equaliser past Lazio's goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi.
Lazio started the second half strongly and Crespo bagged a close-range goal seven minutes after the break. However, Raul headed in a long cross by second-half substitute Pedro Munitis to tie the score in the 73rd minute.
Meanwhile, midfielder Mehmet Scholl scored a goal and a penalty as Bayern Munich thrashed Spartak Moscow 3-0 in Group C. Scholl opened the scoring for Bayern in the 17th minute when he took an Elber pass and broke through two Spartak defenders into the penalty area to beat goalkeeper Alexander Filimonov.
Playing only their second match after the winter break, Spartak appeared tired and failed to produce real scoring opportunities.
Eleven minutes from time, Spartak defender Dmitry Ananko fouled Salihamidzic in the penalty area and Scholl fired into the top corner.
Second-half substitute Paolo Sergio wrapped up the win when he headed in Stefan Effenberg's free kick in the 87th minute.
