Champions League 2016: Wednesday's Round-of-16 Results and Updated Top Scorers

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Wolfsburg placed one foot in this season's Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday evening after a Julian Draxler brace helped steer the German giants to a 3-2 victory over Belgian underdogs Gent.

Draxler tripled his European goal tally for the season by netting either side of half-time, and Max Kruse added a third before Gent staged their fightback through Sven Kums and Kalifa Coulibaly.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo increased his lead as the Champions League's top scorer this season, bagging the opener in Real Madrid's 2-0 victory over Serie A titans Roma, with Jese Rodriguez being the other scorer.

Here's a breakdown of the Champions League's top scorers as things stand and a look at where Wednesday evening's scorers rank in Europe this term:

2015-16 Champions League Top Scorers
Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	12
2	Robert Lewandowski	Bayern Munich	7
3	Artem Dzyuba	Zenit	6
4	Javier Hernandez	Bayer Leverkusen	5
4	Luis Suarez	Barcelona	5
4	Olivier Giroud	Arsenal	5
4	Thomas Muller	Bayern Munich	5
4	Willian	Chelsea	5
9	Admir Mehmedi	Bayer Leverkusen	4
9	Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	4

12	Julian Draxler	Wolfsburg	3
23	Sven Kums	Gent	2
23	Max Kruse	Wolfsburg	2
23	Kalifa Coulibaly	Gent	2

Source: UEFA.com

Recap

It started out as a tight and tense meeting at the Ghelamco Arena, where Gent—the first Belgian team in 15 years to reach the Champions League knockout stages—managed to stem the Wolfsburg tide at first.

It was all the more damaging, then, when Draxler spun down the left wing in the 44th minute, playing a neat one-two with Vieirinha before side-footing an acutely timed opener before the interval. FourFourTwo's Alex Chaffer was in awe of the strike:

That Draxler goal was the kind of goal that makes you just produce random noise. Lovely, lovely play.
— Alex Chaffer (@AlexChaffer) February 17, 2016 ^[1]

Before Wednesday's outing, the former Schalke ace had just a single Champions League goal to his name this season, so it was something of a shock to see him add to his tally again just nine minutes after the restart.

That being said, Belgian football expert John Chapman was eager to point out it was Gent's defensive errors that allowed Draxler to shimmy his way to a second of the night after 54 minutes:

Terrible mistakes by Gent and it's another touch of class for De Bruyne replacement Julian Draxler. 0-2 after 54 minutes.
— John Chapman (@BelgoFoot) February 17, 2016 ^[2]

Christian Trasch soon broke from right-back, crossing in for Kruse to add a third just minutes later, and it seemed as though the floodgates could have swung open as Gent's quarter-final hopes flittered away.

Wolfsburg relented, but Gent were permitted to close the gap to just one goal thanks to midfielder Kums and a late near-post header from substitute Coulibaly. OptaJohan noted the latter has been particularly efficient with his playing time in Europe:

2 - Kalifa Coulibaly scored two goals in his first 13 minutes (excl. injury time) of CL football this season. Quickfire.
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) February 17, 2016 ^[3]

Whereas Draxler was the hero for Wolfsburg on Wednesday, Ronaldo played his equivalent over in Rome, where Real Madrid battled to a 2-0 win and a distinct advantage in their own first-leg matchup.

As BT Sport showed, it was a showcase of class that saw manager Zinedine Zidane's No. 9 cut in from the left flank and rasp in a splendid opener, a moment that ended up setting the pace for what was a relatively comfortable win in the end:

A moment of magic from @Cristiano fires @realmadriden ahead ✨ #UCL #RomaReal https://t.co/w7ri2CyxnX ^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) February 17, 2016 ^[9]

If outcast Jese had been struggling for chances under Zidane's predecessor, Rafa Benitez, the incumbent manager will have liked what he saw of the winger in his late cameo on Wednesday.

Coming on with eight minutes remaining, it didn't take Jese long to steal the ball on the halfway line and take it right into Roma's box before lashing in his side's second strike from the corner of Wojciech Szczesny's box.

Roma's chances of a revival also appear bleak when considering Real failed to concede even one goal at home in their group-stage campaign, having put eight past Malmo in their last home European clash.

Manager Luciano Spalletti's team face an uphill struggle—that much is for sure—and when Ronaldo is performing to the capacity he was on Wednesday, it's nigh impossible to restrain his talents.