Feb 21, 2024, 6:01 PM ET
The Champions League completed its first round of the round of 16 and not all the favorites resolved their qualifying rounds as could have been expected.
The Champions League completed its first round of the round of 16 and not all the favorites and/or candidates resolved their qualifying rounds as could have been expected. Manchester City did it with solvency, Real Madrid with professionalism and PSG almost with patience, but while Bayern will have to overcome a rebellious Lazio in Munich and Arsenal assert their condition against the patient Porto, the runner-up Inter will have to defend in the Metropolitano its meager advantage.
There are also two crosses in the air: Barça had the sentence in their hands at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium but forgave Napoli who took advantage of their chance to equalize and hope to strike the blow in Montjuïc, while Borussia and PSV will also have to break the tie. In Dortmund, perhaps, at this point, it is the most open eliminatory.
A great goal from Brahim Díaz was enough for Real Madrid to show their stripes in Germany. Getty Images
NAPOLI 1-1 BARCELONA Desperation. Barcelona, which after half an hour of the match could have had the tie sealed, left Italy with a draw that felt like a lesser evil, after a frenetic end to the match. Napoli survived as best they could and took advantage of a mistake by Íñigo Martínez to ensure that the return is not exactly a formality for this Barça that still does not show what is necessary to stop being a mere companion in the tournament.
PORTO 1-0 ARSENAL Surprise. A goal from Wenderson Galeno in added time collapsed Arsenal in Do Dragao, defeated by a Porto as patient as it was lucky and who will travel to London with an advantage that they would have signed with their eyes closed when the draw was held. The Portuguese team has always been defeated at the Emirates, and beaten in their last two visits, but although Arteta’s team may consider themselves superior, overcoming their disadvantage is not easy.
LEIPZIG 0-1 REAL MADRID Gallons. A goal, a great goal, from Brahim Díaz was enough for Real Madrid to show their stripes in Germany. They did not play better than Leipzig, they benefited from a controversial goal disallowed by the German team in the first half and put solvency before brilliance to take a victory that seems very difficult to overcome for the German team, which in its only visit to the Bernabéu (September 2022) was already defeated 2-0.
COPENHAGEN 1-3 MANCHESTER CITY Sentence. Injured for five months, De Bruyne has returned to the full stage and his role was as decisive as Foden’s in sentencing the elimination match against the spirited but inferior Copenhagen. The Danish options to come back in Manchester are utopian, especially considering that City has not lost a Champions League match in its stadium since September 2018, accumulating 27 wins and two draws since then. And adding that on both of their visits the Danish team lost (2-1 and 5-0).
LAZIO 1-0 BAYERN Susto. Bayern are still, logically, favorites in the tie but they will have to overcome and improve in Munich the soulless image they showed in Rome and which caused Thomas Tuchel to announce one day after the match that he will leave the Bavarian bench at the end of the season. For now, the penalty converted by Ciro Immobile gives an advantage to a Lazio that only in the 1999-2000 season (eliminated by Valencia) managed to play in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, not surpassing the group stage in any of its matches since then. participations.
Editorial Selections
2 Related
PSG 2-0 REAL SOCIEDAD Logic. Real Sociedad held their own in Paris until a fatal mistake when the match time was approaching and that gave Mbappé the opportunity to put a PSG ahead that, almost, resolved the tie with the great goal from the young Barcola shortly after. The Basque team, which came to dominate in the first half, ended up succumbing to logic and suspecting a comeback in San Sebastián seems not impossible… But it is improbable.
INTER 1-0 ATLÉTICO Insistencia. It took almost 80 minutes for Inter to end the resistance of the most conservative Atlético of the season, more occupied with keeping a clean sheet to leave the resolution of the tie for the second leg than in delivering a coup d’état in Milan. It ended up being Arnautovic who, finishing off an assist from Lautaro Martínez, gave the Italian team the prize in a crossing that is still very open.
PSV 1-1 BORUSSIA DORTMUND Controversy. A much protested penalty from Hummels (“Chelsea or PSG would not have been given this foul”) saved PSV in Eindhoven, re-launched by Luuk de Jong to equal Donyell Malen’s initial 0-1. The German team dominated more in the first half and the Dutch team was able to complete the comeback after the tie, but the tie will be decided in Dortmund, where Borussia has not lost in its last eight Champions League games. On their only visit, in 2002, PSV started 1-1, which would take the tie to extra time.
2024-02-21 23:51:19
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