Sporting Lisbon pulled off one of the most impressive comebacks in Champions League history while Manchester City and Chelsea were eliminated on a morning with plenty of goals in Europe’s top club competition.
Sporting suffered a 3-0 defeat to Bodo/Glimt last week, but the Norwegian club couldn’t continue their fairytale run past the Round of 16 after letting their three-goal advantage slip in Lisbon on Wednesday morning (AEDT).
The home side pulled a goal back around the half-hour mark through a thumping header from Goncalo Inacio, and when Pedro Goncalves scored a second in the 61st minute, the Estadio Jose Alvalade was heaving as the Sporting fans sensed a historic result was in the offing.
They were right, with the Portuguese club netting a penalty via Luis Suarez to level the tie and force it to extra-time, whereupon things got really bad for Bodo, conceding two more goals – one by Maximiliano Araujo, and then another right at the end of extra-time from Rafael Nel – to seal an incredible 5-0 victory for Sporting on the night, and 5-3 win on aggregate.
It was just the fifth time in Champions League history that a team had overturned a three-goal deficit after the first leg of a knockout tie, and sealed Sporting’s first quarter-final appearance since 1982-83.
Chelsea and Manchester City also faced daunting three-goal deficits heading into their second leg matches this morning, but unlike Sporting the English clubs never came close to overturning the deficits.
After being humbled 5-2 in Paris last week, Chelsea copped another pasting from defending champions Paris Saint-Germain, losing 3-0 in London to seal an 8-2 aggregate result.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was once again the architect of Chelsea’s demise, opening the scoring after just six minutes before Bradley Barcola scored eight minutes later to effectively kill off the tie.
By the time Senny Mayulu scored PSG’s third goal of the night, and eighth of the tie, just after the houor mark, many Chelsea fans were already heading for the exits.
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In Manchester, Bernardo Silva’s red card for a handball on the line was the defining moment of Manchester City’s second-leg match against Real Madrid, which ended in a 2-1 win to the Spanish giants.
Silva blocked Vinicius Junior’s shot with what appeared to be his arm and after a lengthy VAR check, the Portuguese veteran was sent off, leaving City with an almighty uphill task given they were already 3-0 down after last week’s loss at the Bernebau.
Things got even harder when Vinicius converted the resulting penalty, and though City were given some hope by an Erling Haaland goal just before half-time, they were never really in with a shout of overturning such a big deficit.
Vinicius put the icing on the cake with a goal in stoppage time to make it 2-1 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate, punting Pep Guardiola’s side from the Champions League for the third year in a row.
Arsenal guaranteed there’ll be at least one Premier League club in the quarter-finals after they beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 thanks to two cracking goals.
Heading into the match off the back of a 1-1 draw in Germany last week, Arsenal took the lead courtesy of a stunning volley from Eberechi Eze, before Declan Rice sealed the result with a low, curling strike from the edge of the box.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ROUND OF 16 RESULTS
Sporting Lisbon 5 – 0 Bodo/Glimt (Sporting win 5-3 on aggregate)
Manchester City 1 – 2 Real Madrid (Real Madrid win 5-1 on aggregate)
Chelsea 0 – 3 Paris Saint-Germain (PSG win 8-2 on aggregate)
Arsenal 2 – 0 Bayer Leverkusen (Arsenal win 3-1 on aggregate)