Since Chelsea eliminated Barcelona and Milan at Manchester United in the 2004-05 season, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have never been left out of the Champions League quarter-finals at the same time. From here, nine trophies were distributed (2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015 in Argentina; 2008, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 in Portuguese) to become the great dominators of world football … Until they crossed paths with PSG and Porto. An era is over, or will it be a point and a row?
Either way, the fall of the two cracks coincided with the hatching of those appearing in all forecasts as successors to the immediate future. Mbappé was a hurricane at the Camp Nou to sentence Barça and Haaland was vital in Borussia Dortmund’s qualification against Sevilla. The round of 16 ended with Luis Suárez extending his curse to Europe, and pointed out by a Simeone which changed him when he had to bounce back from Atletico, and a feeling that almost everything was resolved as expected.
Almost, because Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus KO, his umpteenth stumble (it wouldn’t be fair to say-failure) escaped general logic. Porto, Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool, PSG, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Chelsea will enter the hype that will draw the quarter-finals on Friday. A pure draw with three English clubs, two German and one Portuguese, French and Spanish in which there will be favorites … but no more cinderellas.
CHELSEA 2-0 ATHLETIC MADRID. A Giroud goal froze Atlético’s hopes in the first leg, played in Bucharest, and turned the challenge into a major one for the return leg, which this Wednesday, at Stamford Bridge, proved impossible. He went out for the whole team of Simeone but his drive and spirit was diluted and buried from the goal of Zijech, shortly after half an hour of play, when Tuchel, that already adds 12 parties to the front of the blues without knowing the defeat, took control of the situation. Luis Suárez deserves a point and a part, replaced by his coach at the time of the match and who has already accumulated 2,160 minutes without scoring in the Champions League as a visitor. The bad luck that never stops …
BAYERN MUNICH 2-1 LAZIO. Solved the tie after the 1-4 that crushed Bayern in Lazio in the first leg, the return clash was just a process without further history. A penalty converted by the ineffable Lewandowski, who had already opened the victory in Rome, closed all discussion, extending the advantage Choupo-Moting before I speak cut an advantage that gave no more than itself for the tie.
REAL MADRID 3-1 ATALANTA. Mendy took the first step in the first leg and Benzema, taking advantage of a great assist from Modric after the blunder of Marco Sportiello, led the classification in the return. Bold and vertical in their bet on Atalanta, Madrid prevailed without further ado, putting the solvency of their game ahead, sentencing the penalty kick by Sergio Ramos to turn the final stretch of the clash into a time of no importance. Pleasing, which Atalanta liked, is not usually enough for challenges of this consideration. And less in front of a team like Madrid.
MANCHESTER CITY 2-0 BORUSSIA MÖNCHENGLADBACH. Like Bayern against Lazio or Liverpool against Leipzig, Guardiola’s Manchester City enjoyed a very comfortable return match. Borussia initially wanted to regain some options with a very offensive scheme, but quickly diluted from the goal, goals, Kevin de Bruyne, who left the German team without a choice, kneeling Already definitely after Gundogan’s immediate 2-0 lead. As happiness is never complete, the discordant note was put by Kun Agüero, who bitterly complained of being ignored on the grass by his teammates.
PSG 1-1 BARCELONA. The resurrected Barcelona faced an impossible mission to Paris and said goodbye with a good face but sad, and forceful, elimination. The key was guessed at the end of the first half, when with 1-1 on the scoreboard Keylor Navas, the great protagonist of the night with magnificent stops, rejected a penalty to Leo Messi who could, who knows, give a another color in the second half. The 1-4 first leg, however, was too heavy a slab to dream of nonsense and PSG took full revenge four years after suffering the worst comeback in the history of the tournament at the Camp Nou.
LIVERPOOL 2-0 LEIPZIG. For more than an hour, Leipzig held on to the miracle, with the 0-0, thinking about, perhaps, scoring a goal that could give them hope to overcome the 0-2 first leg, but that ago Salah put in the net advantage was all over. With no time to react Mane made it 2-0 and Liverpool returned with absolute consistency, and calm, to the quarter-finals.
JUVENTUS 3-2 PORT. The blow of the eighth. If in the first leg Juve breathed a sigh of relief with the 2-1 thanks to the late goal of Federico Chiesa to take the role of favorite, a penalty converted by Sergio Oliveira in Turin who was advancing in Porto caused an absolute state of nervousness in the Italians, who turned it around in the second half with a double from Chiesa himself to bring the duel to overtime. Orphaned by Cristiano Ronaldo’s goals, Andrea Pirlo’s team panicked in overtime, with no solutions in attack and demoralized until Oliveira himself equalized. In fact, Rabiot’s final 3-2 was useless for a Juventus player who added a new disappointment, and they are already countless, in Europe.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND 2-2 SEVILLE. If Haaland was transcendental in the 2-3 achieved by Borussia to Sánchez Pizjuán, Haaland was the coup de grace that began to bury Sevilla’s hopes in Dortmund. He scored 1-0 in the half hour of the game and from the penalty spot, in the second try (he missed one in the first half), extended the lead after the break. En-Nesyri discounted and he even equalized in the last sigh, getting an insufficient tie and that, for nothing, caused one to think that Lopetegui’s team could dream of getting overtime.