Spanish Real Madrid defeated English Manchester City in the penalty shootout in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals and reached the semi-finals of the tournament. Sport shares its impressions of the current holder of the “eared” trophy being eliminated from the Champions League and talks about the events in Germany, where the local Bayern beat another team from Foggy Albion, London Arsenal, with a minimal score.
UEFA Champions League April 17, 2024 • starts at 22:00Finished (P)
Manchester CityEngland1 : 23:4
Real MadridSpain
76' • Kevin De Bruyne121' • Julián Alvarez (P)121' • Phil Foden (P)121' • Ederson Moraes (P)
12' • Rodrigo121' • Jude Bellingham (P)121' • Lucas Vazquez (P)121' • Nacho Fernandez (P)121' • Antonio Rudiger (P)
See all goals
Ancelotti took revenge on Guardiola A year ago, City and Real Madrid fought in the semi-finals of the Champions League. The match in Madrid ended in a draw, but in Manchester the future champions skated through the “royal club” and went to Istanbul.
At first, history repeated itself… In Spain, the teams again split amicably, but this time the drawn game became a real thriller! 3:3 — without Kevin De Bruyne, who was poisoned, the City lost the victory, but approached the return match in a great mood. Last weekend, Pep Guardiola's team slammed Luton Town (5:1) and, taking advantage of the misfires of Arsenal and Liverpool, took the lead in the English Premier League (EPL). As for Carlo Ancelotti's boys, they beat Mallorca (1:0) and took another step towards La Liga gold.
City, as hosts, took the first half. Many dangerous moments, the pressure of the returning De Bruyne and Jack Grealish against the backdrop of Erling Haaland, who had become a ghost, the saves of the Ukrainian goalkeeper of “cream” Andrey Lunin… But the Manchester team went into the break having conceded: in the 12th minute Jude Bellingham, Federico Valverde and Vinicius scored a great goal counterattack, and Rodrigo upset Ederson at the second attempt.
After the break, City's initiative became even more impressive. Deadly episodes at the Madrid goal and mistakes in defense made the task of keeping the score 1:0 almost unrealistic. And the “townspeople” were saved as expected. In the 63rd minute, Rudiger was unable to clear the ball, and then De Bruyne appeared, sending the ball under the crossbar. A few minutes later, KDB could have scored a double, but from an ideal position (where were the defenders?) the Belgian shot wide of the goal.
“Real” held out until extra time (0:15 in favor of the “citizens” on corners in 90 minutes!) only for Antonio Rudiger to screw up his shot almost point-blank. And to add a couple more saves to Lunin’s collection, the penalty shootout became the culmination of the confrontation, in which the Ukrainian proved himself to be a worthy replacement for the injured Thibaut Courtois. The goalkeeper saved the goal twice after shots from Bernardo Silva (the Portuguese shot poorly) and Mateo Kovacic, while Ederson emerged victorious only from a duel with Luka Modric.
The most titled club in the Champions League sensationally reaches the semi-finals. City remains focused on the English Championship.
The Gunners lost their shells Arsenal finally broke the terrible trend of conceding five goals from “Bavaria” for the match and scored a cheerful 2:2 in London.
A week has passed — the teams met again in Munich after failures in the national championships. The Gunners misfired in the match with Aston Villa (0:2) and slowed down in the golden race. And Bayern buried 11 years of hegemony: Bayer Leverkusen won the Bundesliga for the first time in history.
The Germans also had an impressive series against Arsenal: Bayern remains undefeated at home in European competition for 14 meetings… After the final whistle, the figure was updated to 15: despite the pair's favorite status, the Londoners lost. In an extremely close defensive match, everything was decided in the 63rd minute, when Raphael Guerreiro found the head of Joshua Kimmich with a cross and the German opened the scoring. After David Raya's goal, Bayern were close to doubling the score, but Arsenal didn't even get the saving grace.
For the first time since 2020, when the Munich team became winners of the Champions League, Bayern qualified to the semi-finals of the tournament. The fans' spirits are lifted even more by the personal achievement of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer: the captain became the sole Champions League record holder for complete matches without conceding a goal (58 clean sheets).
The defeat of Barcelona and the drama in Dortmund Other return matches of the quarter-finals were played the day before. The victories were won by the teams that lost in the first meetings of the confrontations:
- Paris Saint-Germain lost to Barcelona in France, but was rehabilitated in Spain. The best club in Ligue 1 defeated the Catalans with a score of 4:1 (6:4 on aggregate) and made it to the semi-finals. Let us note that the sending off of Ronald Araujo in the first half broke the game of the “blue garnets”, which with ten men could not contain Kylian Mbappe and the Parisians, who scored a double;
- An equally magnificent comeback was achieved by Borussia Dortmund. “Bumblebees” played a lackluster match in Madrid, but they staged an extravaganza at home. 2:0, Atlético equalizes, but after the final whistle the scoreboard reads 4:2 (5:4 in total) — there will be no Spanish semi-final! “Mattressers”, like “Barca”, fell apart before our eyes and left the main club tournament of the Old World.
We wrote about the main events of Tuesday in the operational review.
Only five Champions League matches left
- April 30, May 1 /first semi-final matches;
- May 7 and 8/return matches;
- June 1 /FINAL.
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