Madrid arrived at White Hart Lane with a four-goal advantage from the first leg and only a collapse of epic proportions was going to prevent them meeting Barca for a place at Wembley Stadium in May.
That never looked likely as Spurs failed to test visiting goalkeeper Iker Casillas in the early stages, but Madrid hearts will have fluttered when Luka Modric went to ground under a challenge from Xabi Alonso and Roman Pavlyuchenko appeared to be clipped by Raul Albiol, but referee Nicola Rizzi rejected both penalty appeals.
Pavlyuchenko then wasted Spurs’ first real chance of the game, blazing a shot high into the stand after Aaron Lennon found him unmarked in the box, and the Russian forward’s next chance nestled in the arms of Casillas.
At the other end Heurelho Gomes was forced to push away a Sergio Ramos header that threatened to creep in under the crossbar, but the Brazilian then made a dreadful howler that ended Spurs’ dream when he spilled a speculative effort from Ronaldo into his own net on 50 minutes.
Looking to salvage something from the tie Spurs went back on the attack but Pavlyuchenko was again wasteful as he headed over, and Jermain Defoe then brought a decent save out of Casillas as the White Hart Lane faithful desperately hoped for a goal to cheer.
Defoe almost bundled in an equaliser after Casillas failed to deal with Rafael van der Vaart’s corner, but there would not be one last moment to savour as Spurs’ remarkable European campaign came to an end.
For Real Madrid, they now face a mouth-watering clash with bitter foes Barcelona in the semi-finals, with the two teams also set to meet in La Liga and the Copa del Rey final over the coming weeks.