Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain are about to make it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The English celebrated a 2-0 victory over RB Leipzig on Tuesday in the first leg of the first leg in Budapest because of a serious mistake by ÖFB team player Marcel Sabitzer. The Parisians prevailed against FC Barcelona 4-1 away. The second legs rise on March 10th.
Leipzig got off to a better start in the Puskas Arena, where the WAC will meet Tottenham in the Europa League on Thursday. Dani Olmo had bad luck with a pole headball in the fifth minute. After about a quarter of an hour, Liverpool found their way into the game, Mohamed Salah failed alone in front of RB goalie Peter Gulacsi (16.). Andrew Robertson almost surprised Gulacsi with a long shot (33rd), before that Leipzig captain Sabitzer had checked Liverpool keeper Alisson from the edge of the penalty area (17th).
Champions League, round of 16
Tuesday:
Leipzig – Liverpool 0:2
Barcelona – Paris Saint-Germain 1:4
Wednesday:
Porto – Juventus 21 o’clock
Seville – Borussia Dortmund 9 p.m.
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After the break, Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku initially missed a top chance when he found his master in Alisson (47th). Then there were two dropouts from the Saxons, which probably paved the way for Liverpool to reach the quarter-finals. Sabitzer played a hair-raising bad pass to Salah, the Egyptian didn’t let the chance pass and made it 1-0 for the English champions (53rd).
Five minutes later, Nordi Mukiele made an extremely unfortunate figure with a long Curtis Jones ball, Sadio Mane ran alone on goal and scored the second goal of the “Reds”, who had lost three times in a row in the Premier League. Liverpool was far from another defeat this time, Leipzig fought too unimaginatively for the connection in the finish. Ex-Salzburg’s Hwang Hee-chan missed the best chance of the honor goal, his Lupfer just missed the target (93rd).
PSG gained an even clearer advantage for the second leg. The game in Barcelona was initially even, Antoine Griezmann (14th) and Mauro Icardi (19th) missed the first opportunities. A little later, Frenkie de Jong fell in a running duel with Layvin Kurzawa, and Lionel Messi (27th) converted the penalty awarded. The Argentine has scored in the Champions League every calendar year since 2005, setting Raul’s record (1995 – 2011).
The star of the evening was Kylian Mbappe. The world champion danced the Barca defense in a confined space in the 32nd minute and scored the equalizer, then he brought the guests in the lead in the 65th minute. Earlier, Gerard Pique cleared a pass from Alessandro Florenzi at Mbappe’s feet. Five minutes later, Moise Kean headed the 3-1 for the Champions League finalists of the previous season after Leandro Paredes’s free-kick, before Mbappe achieved the final score with a flick into the Kreuzeck (85th). With it Paris drove a sovereign victory even without the injured Neymar and took revenge for the legendary 1: 6 against the Catalans at Camp Nou four years ago.
Ailing Borussia, Juve wants to keep clean
While Liverpool and PSG have found a good starting position, Borussia Dortmund is still looking for the road to success. The Germans have to bring a current mixed season in a positive direction on Wednesday (9 p.m. / Dazn) in the Champions League round of 16 first leg at Sevilla FC. Since BVB is weak nationally, the Spaniards are the favorites. For Edin Terzic it is two days after it became known that Marco Rose would inherit him after the season, the premiere as coach in the premier class.
“We want to take the chance to show our true colors in another competition,” said the 38-year-old. His team has only won two of the last seven competitive games, in the league only five points have been collected in the last six attempts. The six-time Europa League champion, on the other hand, competes with the self-confidence of nine competitive game wins en suite, and coach Julen Lopetegui’s team has been clean for 709 minutes. “If you compare the current form, Sevilla have a clear advantage. They play very good football, they have a run,” said Terzic: “But if we manage to keep our performance on the pitch for 180 minutes or more, I see opportunities. “
Also on Wednesday, Juventus Turin will be at the Estadio do Dragao at FC Porto, which is second in the Portuguese league, and wants to remain undefeated. Of four duels so far, Juventus has left the pitch three times with a 0-0 win – most recently in 2017 in the round of 16 with 2-0 and 1-0 – and conceded only one goal overall. In the league there was a setback in the title race after a good phase with a 0-1 at Napoli.
“They didn’t get a shot on goal and we lost to a dubious penalty whistle. When you play so many games, you lose a bit of sharpness, but they all played very well,” said Juve coach Andrea Pirlo. In any case, fourth place is below expectations. In the premier class you want to avoid an out like 2020 against Lyon as much as possible. (apa)
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