With the second round of knockouts in the UEFA Champions League coming to a close, let’s recap what has happened. This year’s quarter-finals had the giants of soccer play each other, and every single match was highly entertaining.
Borussia Dortmund vs. Atletico Madrid
Leg One: 1-2 @ Atletico
Leg Two: 4-2, 5-4 on aggregate @ Dortmund
Takeaways: Wow. The second leg of this match was highly suspenseful. Many predicted that Atletico would go through to the semi-finals, and their beliefs were initially confirmed during the first leg. However, Dortmund managed to clutch up in the second leg, at home, and win on aggregate. Atletico’s loss was mostly due to their poor defending (they had five defenders in the box to mark Dortmund’s lone striker, and he still scored a header on the third goal) and bad misses by their strikers Correa and Morata. That’s not to take away from the amazing show put on by Dortmund, who completely deserve their spot in the semis.
Paris Saint-Germain vs. FC Barcelona
Leg One: 2-3 @ Paris
Leg Two: 4-1, 6-4 on aggregate @ Barcelona
Takeaways: Barcelona fans mourn at the end of their Champions League run. All of their work put together during the first leg completely crumbled during the second. During the first leg, Barcelona’s attack did beautifully, and Araujo, Kounde, and youngster Cubarsi prevented Mbappe from having a big impact, forcing other PSG players to control the way their game went. PSG winger Dembele controversially celebrated his goal against Barcelona, angering fans. During the second leg, though, Barcelona’s attack fell apart, and it seemed like Raphina was one of the few players dialed in for the Spanish side. Their defense also crumbled after Araujo’s red card in the first 30 minutes, leading to Mbappe scoring a brace and PSG going through.
Bayern Munich vs. Arsenal
Leg One: 2-2 @ Arsenal
Leg Two: 1-0, 3-2 on aggregate @ Munich
Takeaways: Arsenal once again finds themselves out of the Champions League as their drought for a trophy in this competition continues. Arsenal’s poor defending on all of Bayern’s goals, combined with their lack of shots in the second leg led to their defeat. Despite this being one of the worst Bayern Munich teams in the past decade, they now find themselves in the semi-finals against Real Madrid.
Real Madrid vs. Manchester City
Leg One: 3-3 @ Madrid
Leg Two: 1-1, 4-4 on aggregate, Madrid wins 4-3 on penalties @ Manchester
Takeaways: The two biggest clubs in Europe fought tooth and nail in this incredibly fun-to-watch quarter-final. During the first leg, Manchester City dominated possession, but Madrid still found the space to score three amazing goals. The second leg had Machester dominating everything, from possession to shots to passes. Real Madrid goalkeeper, Lunin, did beautifully saving nearly every shot at his goal. Lunin also saved two penalties, one where he predicted correctly and did not dive, and one where he did dive and made a great save. These matches were neck and neck, but Madrid prevailed.
This year’s quarter-finals hosted some of the most entertaining matches we have seen in a while. Hopefully, the semi-finals will be just as entertaining and next year’s Champions league will be just as exciting.