New Delhi: UEFA Champions League came back this week with the second legs of Round of 16 matches. With 4 out of 8 teams selected for the Quarter-Final draw on 19th March, remaining four will be decided next week.
Winners:
Mbappe and PSG
Mbappe became the youngest player to score 25 goals in the European club competition. He overtook Messi who previously held the record. Due to his phenomenal form PSG defeated Barcelona 5-2 on aggregate to reach the Quarter Finals.
Haaland and Dortmund
Haaland maintained his position as the competition’s top scorer this season by scoring two goals in the second leg of Round of 16 against Sevilla. He also became the fastest player to score 20 goals (in 14 gmes) in the prestigious tournament.
Porto
In a shocking turn of events Porto defeated Juventus and Ronaldo to reach the Quarter Finals. Although aggregate score was 4-4, but Porto won after scoring more away goals. FC Porto scored 3 away goals one more than Juventus.
Liverpool and Klopp
Return of midfielder Fabinho proved to be very beneficial for ailing Liverpool who were seeing their worst form in last two years. They won against Leipzig with an aggregate score of 4-0 after scoring two goals in the second leg. Mane and Salah both scored although it took them 70 mins to score the first one. Liverpool in no way can defend their Premier League title as they are 25 points behind the league leaders Man. City.
Losers
Barcelona and Messi
Barcelona were kicked out of the tournament by PSG, for the first time since 2007 they failed to reach the stage of Quarter Finals. This might be the last time Messi plays for the Blaugranas in the UCL as his contract ends in the summer and he is yet to renew.
Juventus and Ronaldo
Juventus has been once again eliminated from the tournament but this time very horribly as Ronaldo ‘the miracle worker’ failed to save them. Already people have started to talk about kicking out Ronaldo or selling him.
Sevilla
Sevilla is having a good season as they sit on number 4 in La Liga, but they were unable to stop the Norwegian striker Haaland and his lightning form.
Nagelsmann and Leipzig
After the match Nagelsmann himself said, “I think we deserved to be knocked out, mainly due to today’s match.There weren’t a lot of emotional moments, we were too slow to create actions, we were just possessing the ball.” This showed that even the coach was disappointed by his team’s performance let alone the fans.
Remaining Matches
16 March
Borussia Mönchengladbach vs Manchester City
Atalanta vs Real Madrid
17 March
Lazio vs Bayern Munich
Atlético Madrid vs Chelsea
