Bayern Munich, champions in 2020, said goodbye in Paris to the dream of repeating the title and caused that for the third consecutive season in the semifinals, which will star PSG, Manchester City, Chelsea and Real Madrid, the defender of the title is not present.
The quarters closed on Wednesday with no more surprises, with the two favorites deciding their pass. Real Madrid did good in the empty Anfield stadium the victory of the first leg and despite Liverpool’s arreones maintained the type with solvency to return, after two years of absence, to the semifinals of their fetish tournament while in the imposing, and also soulless, Westfalenstadion, Manchester City went from scare to victory after widely dominating a Dortmund who dreamed of the semi-final during the 40 minutes in which they were ahead on the scoreboard.
Guardiola’s team will face PSG, the current runner-up, in one of the semifinals, who, led by an imposing Neymar, supported Bayern’s particular revenge in the majestic tie starring Keylor Navas, a true hero in Munich and who in two sensational saves in Paris He prevented Ney’s footballing exhibition from coming to nothing.
This will be their second face to face, after PSG and Manchester City met in the quarterfinals of the 2015-16 season, sentenced on that occasion in favor of the citizens, who after equaling (2-2) in the Park of the Princes won thanks to a lone goal by Kevin de Bruyne in the second leg.
The other semifinal will face Chelsea, which returns to the penultimate round of the tournament for the first time since 2014 (it was eliminated by Atlético Madrid), with Real Madrid absent in the last two seasons in this penultimate stage after eight consecutive qualifications.
It will be their debut face to face in the Champions League but not the first time they face each other … And the merengue team does not have exactly good memories of their crosses with the blues, who defeated them in the 1998 European Super Cup, thanks to a Gustavo Poyet’s solitary goal, and also in the final of the former Recopa de Europa in 1971, sentenced after a tiebreaker match (1-1 finished the first) in which Chelsea beat 2-1.
LIVERPOOL 0-0 REAL MADRID. Liverpool entered Anfield like a cyclone and a huge Courtois prevented fear from taking hold of Madrid. A saving foot to Salah’s low shot when just two minutes had elapsed and a flying hand to Milner’s shot at ten warned Zidane’s men that they had to grit their teeth. The verticality of the reds did not diminish but their ability to carry danger as soon as Real specified, through the presence of Casemiro and the touch of Modric, their greatest dominance in the center of the field. With Liverpool disarmed in the combination and betting everything on an electric attack but without order, Madrid ended up resisting without major stresses and making good, with solvency, the 3-1 with which they had won in Valdebebas.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND 1-2 MANCHESTER CITY. After the 2-1 win in the first leg, it was not a walk for Manchester City to reach their first semi-final after five years. A goal from Bellingham at the quarter hour of the game advanced Borussia Dortmund and left Guardiola’s team against the ropes, which from then on starred in an absolute dominance that did not bear fruit until the second half, after in the first De Bruyne crashed a shot on the crosshead. An innocent penalty from Emre Can led to Mahrez’s draw and from that moment City began to move the ball with as much skill as patience to disarm a rival desperate to find Haaland and who finally gave up as soon as Foden scored the 1- 2 that sentenced the tie.
CHELSEA 0-1 PORTO. Porto found the miracle of getting the two goals in the first leg impossible. Solvent, serious, orderly and effective, Chelsea did not risk the slightest bit and Edouard Mendy barely went through situations of real danger until the 93rd minute, when he was beaten by an extraordinary goal from Mehdi Taremi that did not give time for more. The Portuguese team, the executioner of Juventus in the round of 16, wanted but could not, dominated eagerly but created little danger for Tuchel’s team, who confirmed their classification with the same solvency that they did in the last tie beating Atlético de Madrid .
PSG 0-1 BAYERN MUNICH. If in Munich PSG beat Bayern better (much better), in Paris the German team won despite the magnificent performance of a once again outstanding Neymar, at the same level as in the first leg but without the fortune or expensive success to goal. The goals in the opposite field gave Pochettino’s men their sweet revenge for the end of last season and the result showed a sentence that, not because it was repeated, ceases to be true: the power of the areas rules in football and there PSG was superior, for more global dominance that Bayern could exercise. Between Mbappé and Neymar they sentenced what Keylor Navas saved on the other side of the field, in capital letters, the other great protagonist of the success of a team that, surely, thanked Lewandowski’s absence due to injury.
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