Luis Diaz scored the goal that knocked Trent Alexander-Arnold and Real Madrid out of the Champions League as Bayern Munich won 4-3 on Wednesday night.
The Champions League quarter-finals pitted two former Liverpool team-mates directly against each other as Bayern left winger Diaz took on Real right-back Alexander-Arnold.
It ended in an emphatic 6-4 aggregate victory for the Bundesliga champions after a chaotic 4-3 second-leg win at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday evening.
Arda Guler put Real 1-0 up in the first minute only to be pegged back by Aleksandar Pavlovic soon after, with Guler then making it 2-1 before the half-hour mark.
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Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe exchanged goals to ensure the first half ended with Real 3-2 up on the night and to level the tie at 4-4 on aggregate.
A needless second yellow card for Liverpool-linked midfielder Eduardo Camavinga reduced Real to 10 men late on, and almost immediately after Diaz scored the winner – a deflected stunner from range.
It wasn’t the final goal of the game but it was the clincher, making it 5-4 on aggregate and knocking Alexander-Arnold’s side out of the quarter-finals.
Another Liverpool target, Michael Olise, made it 4-3 on the night with an outstanding effort at the end of stoppage time as Bayern set up a semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain.
Luis Diaz’s outstanding debut season at Bayern Munich
Luis Diaz bagged a brace and saw red in the first half of Paris St Germain’s victory (Thibault Camus/AP)
Bayern’s victory continues an outstanding debut season for Diaz since his £65.6 million move from Liverpool in the summer.
The Colombian has now scored 24 goals and assisted another 18 in 42 games for the German club, averaging a goal involvement every 82 minutes in all competitions.
That is better than any Liverpool player this season, with Diaz heading into a defining run at the end of the campaign as Bayern eye silverware in the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB-Pokal.
Harry Kane lifts the trophy, Luis Diaz Bayern (Tom Weller/AP)
Vincent Kompany’s side are 12 points clear at the top of the league with five games left to play while PSG and Bayer Leverkusen await in the semi-finals of the two cups.
It is clear that Liverpool are missing a forward of Diaz’s energy and vibrancy this season, though his transfer was difficult to turn down given his age – now 29 – his contract situation and the package offered.
But the failure to replace him in the transfer market has proved costly, with the club eager not to block Rio Ngumoha‘s pathway but Arne Slot reluctant to use the 17-year-old consistently until this stage of the season.
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