Eight qualifiers and seven with the flavor of the sentence. Seven of the eight group stage champions won as visitors, with only Juventus failing in Portugal and being sentenced, in the absence of miracles that are not contemplated, passes from Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG and Liverpool.
They can still aspire to the comeback, Sevilla, Atlético and even Atalanta and Juve will have to go back in Turin to Porto, understanding that the eight protagonists of the quarters will have their two great favorites, Bayern and City, and a collection of applicants who promise emotion .
All this, of course, if there are no surprises in the second leg and the Mbappé, Haaland, Wrong, Lewandowski and others lose the effectiveness they had in these first rounds of an eighth flavor of farewell.
BARCELONA 1-4 PARIS SG. Run over. Without Neymar, nor Di María, but with Mbappé. And with Verratti, Kean, Paredes and others, PSG passed over Barcelona with an ease as insulting as it was unexpected. That the French champion could be considered a favorite in the tie did not cause anyone to suspect an outrage of such magnitude. The 1-0 scored by Messi, from a penalty, was hardly a mirage before the furious reaction of a rival who equalized in a flash and swept a delivered Barça and that, losing for the first time in its history two consecutive Champions League matches in the Camp Nou, practically said goodbye to Europe.
LEIPZIG 0-2 LIVERPOOL. Resurrection. In full depression, after linking three defeats in the Premier against Brighton, Manchester City and Leicester that practically sentenced their luck in the local tournament, Liverpool resuscitated with solvency in Budapest, where they were received by Leipzig that stood up to them in the first part and disintegrated after the break, from 0-1 achieved by Salah. Mané, almost immediately, sentenced the victory and made it clear to the quarterfinals.
PORT 2-1 JUVENTUS. Aire. The one that Federico Chiesa gave with his goal to Juventus in the final stretch of a match that dominated Porto 2-0 thanks to the goals of Taremi and Marega, at the beginning of the match and the restart after the break that left the team by Andrea Pirlo very touched. La Vecchia Signora dominated the game but had no definition, very marked Cristiano Ronaldo and saved the furniture almost at the end to face a return in which it would be worth the 1-0 with which he already beat the Portuguese team in this same tie in 2017.
SEVILLA 2-3 BORUSSIA DORTMUND. Haaland. If Mbappé was exhibited at the Camp Nou on Tuesday, the next day Haaland responded with a superb performance in Seville, where he scored two goals and assisted in another to lead the victory of a very solvent Borussia Dortmund against the impotence of Seville, which he advanced on the scoreboard through Suso and managed to keep a minimum of options near the end thanks to Luuk de Jong’s goal. The ball and the arrivals were from the Andalusian team, but the definition and the killer instinct was German, with the leadership of a scorer called to mark an era.
ATHLETIC 0-1 CHELSEA. Submission. The dreaded collapse that all teams suffer during the season has gone to Atlético’s turn at the moment when the fate of the course begins to be decided. Surprised by Levante in the League with two almost consecutive setbacks that have greatly diminished their lead at the top of the table, their forced trip to Bucharest to host Chelsea could not have been more unfortunate. Little incisive, giving ground to the rival and almost without a shot, Luis Suárez added another game to forget in Europe and Giroud, with a sensational goal, gave victory to a Chelsea that is approaching a Champions quarter-final that has not played since 2014.
LAZIO 1-4 BAYERN MUNICH. Judgment. Bayern barely needed 25 minutes to kneel a Lazio always in tow and focused, from the beginning, to defend itself from the overwhelming of an opponent who dominated them as they wanted. It took Lewandowski nine minutes to open the can and as the second half began, Acerbi scored a 0-4 that no longer offered any kind of discussion. Active champion, the German giant showed muscle without giving any option to a surrendered rival.
ATALANTA 0-1 REAL MADRID. Dressing. It cost him but Zidane’s Madrid joined the foreign victories, beating Atalanta in Bergamo thanks to a solitary goal by Mendy four minutes after the conclusion that broke the iron resistance of a rival who was very soon at a disadvantage due to the expulsion by Remo Freuler but that the guy put up with him until the last breath. Vinicius had the best meringue chances, Muriel protested a stomp from Lucas Vázquez about which the referee did not want to know anything and when it seemed that Madrid should settle for the equalizer, his seasoning work, throughout a widely dominated game, a surprising shot from the French side gave him a golden victory that gives him many options to get into the quarters.
BORUSSIA MÖNCHENGLADBACH 0-2 MANCHESTER CITY. Quality. There are already 19 consecutive victories for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, who since 19 December (0-1 in Southampton) has done nothing but win. He has linked 13 wins that make him the only favorite to conquer the Premier and this Wednesday he took a giant step towards the quarterfinals, winning with solvency in Budapest by a clear 0-2 at Borussia Mönchengladbach, who kept the rate for half an hour but not resisted the soccer exhibition of the citizens. Two plays born in the center of Cancelo were continued by Bernardo Silva, first to achieve 0-1 in the first half, then to assist Gabriel Jesús in the second. Nobody stops a City in a state of grace.
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