Since Chelsea eliminated Barcelona and Milan from 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 there, nine trophies were awarded (2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015 the Argentinian; 2008, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 the Portuguese) to become the great dominants of world football … until they crossed PSG and Porto. An era has passed, or is it a period and is followed?
Be that as it may, the fall of the two stars coincided with the emergence of those appearing in all prophecies as immediate future successors. Mbappé was a hurricane at Camp Nou to condemn Barça and Haaland was vital in Borussia Dortmund’s qualifying against Sevilla. The round of 16 ended with Luis Suárez extending his curse in Europe, and was signaled by Simeone that changed him when Atlético had to come back, and the feeling that almost everything was resolved as expected.
Almost, because Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus KO, his umpteenth stumbling block (it wouldn’t be fair to call it a failure) escaped common logic. Porto, Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool, PSG, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Chelsea join the hype that will attract 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 asse pairs.
CHELSEA 2-0 ATLÉTICO MADRID. A goal from Giroud froze Atlético’s hopes in the first leg, played in Bucharest, and made the challenge a capital for the return, which proved impossible at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. He went out for all of Simeone’s team, but his drive and spirit were watered down and he was buried after Ziyech’s goal, shortly after half an hour into the game, at which point Tuchel’s, who has already played twelve games for the blues. without knowing the defeat, they took control of the situation. Luis Suárez, who will be replaced by his coach during the game, earns point and apart and has already collected 2,160 minutes as a visitor without scoring in the Champions League. The jinx that doesn’t stop …
BAYERN MUNICH 2-1 LAZIO. Once the tie was resolved after the 1-4 that Bayern crushed Lazio in the first leg, the return clash was just a procedure with no further history. A penalty kick transformed by the unspeakable Lewandowski, who had already opened the win in Rome, ended all discussion and extended Choupo-Moting’s lead before Parolo cut a lead that was no more than a draw.
REAL MADRID 3-1 ATALANTA. Mendy took the first step in the first leg and Benzema benefited from a great assist from Modric after Marco Sportiello’s blunder and led the way through qualifying in the second leg. Bold and vertical in their bet on Atalanta, Madrid won without further difficulty putting the solvency of their game first, condemning the draw with a penalty from Sergio Ramos for taking the final leg of the clash in an insignificant time. change. Like, who loved the Atalanta, is usually not enough for challenges of such consideration. And less if you face a team like Madrid.
MANCHESTER CITY 2-0 BORUSSIA MÖNCHENGLADBACH. Like Bayern against Lazio or Liverpool against Leipzig, Guardiola Manchester City enjoyed a very comfortable second leg. Borussia wanted to restore an option from the start with a very offensive plan, but that was quickly watered down after the goal, a beautiful goal, from Kevin de Bruyne, who left the German side without an option, already kneeling definitively after the direct 2-0 through Gundogan. Since luck is never complete, the discordant tone was set by Kun Agüero, who bitterly complained that he was being ignored on the field by his teammates.
PSG 1-1 BARCELONA. Faced with an impossible mission in Paris, the resurrected Barcelona said good-bye with a good face, but with sad and powerful elimination. The key was guessed at the end of the first half, when Keylor Navas, 1-1 on the scoreboard, the great protagonist of the night with magnificent saves, turned down a penalty kick from Leo Messi who, who knows, could give a different color to the second half. However, the 1-4 first leg was too tough to dream of the machado and PSG took full revenge four years after the worst comeback in the history of the tournament at Camp Nou.
LIVERPOOL 2-0 LEIPZIG. For over an hour, Leipzig held on to the miracle, 0-0, thinking about perhaps scoring a goal that could give them hope to come back from 0-2 in the first leg, but once Salah got the team ahead. red it’s all over. With no time to react, Mané made it 2-0 and Liverpool returned to the quarter-finals with absolute consistency and calm.
JUVENTUS 3-2 PORT. The hit of the eighths. As Juventus breathed a sigh of relief in the first leg 2-1 thanks to Federico Chiesa’s late target to take the role of favorite, a penalty transformed by Sergio Oliveira in Turin moving to Porto caused a state of absolute nerves among the Italians, who turned it around in the second half with a double from Chiesa herself to bring the game in extra time. Orphaned by Cristiano Ronaldo’s goals, Andrea Pirlo’s team panicked in extra time, lacking solutions in the attack, and demoralized until Oliveira equalized herself. In the end, Rabiot’s last 3-2 was useless for a Juventus that caused another disappointment, and they are already countless, in Europe.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND 2-2 SEVILLE. If Haaland was transcendental in the 2-3 achieved by Borussia on the Sánchez Pizjuán, Haaland was the side that started to bury Seville’s hopes in Dortmund. He scored 1-0 after half an hour into the game and from a penalty kick he extended the lead after half time on the second attempt (a missed one in the first half). En-Nesyri finished and scored the equalizer himself on the last breath, leaving him inadequate for a draw and even thinking about Lopetegui’s team dreaming of getting extra time.