The quarterfinals of the Champions League are upon us, and the results have come in with some bad news for the minnows making runs in this competition. Let’s recap the action.
Winners from leg 1 of the quarterfinals
Alisson
How on Earth did Liverpool win that game? I’ll tell you how: Harvey Elliott scored the goal, but the Brazilian goalkeeper kept Paris St.-Germain’s attackers out of his net time and time again before that to keep Liverpool’s Champions League record somehow perfect. Arne Slot needs to make a tactical shift, because there’s no reason to think that his team’s luck will hold if the return leg at Merseyside is as one-sided as this, but Alisson (who himself called this game the performance of his life) is responsible for the Premier League leaders’ 1-0 edge.
Inter Milan
Feyenoord may have beaten their cross-town rivals, but the nerazzurri proved to be made of tougher stuff after beating the Dutch side 2-0 at De Kuip. Inter have only given up one goal in their entire Champions League campaign so far, and they needed a hatful of blown chances by Feyenoord to keep it that way, but they take the lead back home to Italy.
Brahim Díaz
In a back-and-forth game that seesawed between Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, the Real striker looked like Fred Astaire doing several stutter steps that sat down José María Giménez before lashing a shot to the far post that gave his team the first leg at the Bernabéu. Because of him, Atleti’s hopes are now pinned on winning at their home stadium.
Jurriën Timber
The Arsenal right-back’s first Champions League goal came on his native Dutch soil, as the Utrecht native opened his team’s scoring at Eindhoven.
Myles Lewis-Skelly
Ordinarily, being subbed off after 35 minutes doesn’t make you a winner, especially when you aren’t hurt, but the 18-year-old was lucky to avoid a second yellow card from Spanish referee Jesús Gil Manzano after fouling PSV’s Richard Ledezma. After that, Coach Mikel Arteta pulled him from the match to keep him from seeing red. The kid assisted on Ethan Nwaneri’s goal, but he has to cut the disciplinary cards out of his game.
Champions League losers
António Silva
You can blame Benfica’s offense for failing to generate a goal after Pau Cubarsí’s red-card foul reduced Barcelona to 10 men for the entire second half, but it was the Portuguese side’s central defender whose cross-field pass was intercepted by Raphinha near his goal. The Brazilian gave Barcelona a 1-0 advantage going back to the Nou Camp, when the hosts had the game in front of them for the taking.
Ryan Flamingo and Walter Benítez
All of PSV’s defense got taken apart during their eye-watering 7-1 loss to Arsenal, but Flamingo (yes, that’s still his real name) presented Mikel Merino with a goal on a platter while attempting a pass to a fellow defender, while the Argentinian goalkeeper Benítez spilled Ethan Nwaneri’s cross for Martin Ødegaard’s first goal and then got a weak hand to another shot to give the Norwegian playmaker his second. It made the wrong kind of history, as PSV became the first Dutch team ever to give up seven goals in a Champions League game. They’ll be facing Arsenal’s reserves during the return leg in London.
Bayer Leverkusen
They are a distant second in the Bundesliga to Bayern Munich, and they provided more proof of their inferiority to the Bavarians during a 3-0 loss at the Allianz Arena that easily could have been 6-0. Nordi Mukiele, who’s having quite the bad week, got sent off and backup goalkeeper Matěj Kovář let Bayern’s second goal slip through both hands to give Jamal Musiala a tap-in. After a dream season last year, die Schwarzroten have crashed back to Earth.
Borussia Dortmund
The boos rained down at Signal Iduna Park as the home team could only manage a 1-1 draw against a not-that-distinguished Lille side, leaving the French club full of hope when they contest the return leg on their home ground. It was a pallid display from the team in yellow and black. The exciting Dortmund teams that Jürgen Klopp coached are receding further and further into memory.
Club Brugge
With the score 1-1 at the Jan Breydel Stadium, it was looking like the home side had the better of the game in the second half. In the last 10 minutes, though, the good version of Aston Villa showed up and forced an own goal from defender Brandon Mechele and a penalty given away by Christos Tzolis that resulted in a 3-1 win for Villa on the road and the Belgian team wondering what might have been.