After Sporting’s comeback against Bodo/Glimt, Manchester City also wanted to achieve an exploit against Real Madrid. Objective: to recover this 3-0 in favor of the Merengues at the Santiago Bernabéu, with this hat-trick from Fede Valverde. Without too much surprise, Pep Guardiola brought out the heavy artillery, with an attacking trio made up of Cherki, Haaland and Doku, well supported by Bernardo Silva. Opposite, Mbappé started on the bench as expected, and we had Vinicius Jr and Brahim Diaz as the main offensive references, while the sensation Thiago Pitarch was there in the midfield. From the first minute of play, Valverde started behind the defense but missed in front of Donnarumma. In the process, Cherki released a powerful shot into the area, repelled by Courtois (2nd). The Cityzens were dangerous and this time, it was Rodri who came up against the Belgian goalkeeper of Real Madrid (4th). Madrid’s defense was far from calm and the Mancunians found their way to the surface quite easily, with Cherki clearly wanting to show off.
But as soon as the Merengues passed the second, Manchester City also had big problems, and Vinicius Jr hit the post on a quick transition (17th). Behind: the turning point of the match. Indeed, the ball returned to the Brazilian who struck, and Bernardo Silva prevented the goal by sticking out his arm to divert the trajectory of the shot. After using VAR, Clément Turpin did not hesitate and indicated the penalty spot. Worse, the Portuguese was sent off, while Vinicius Jr transformed wonderfully, wrong-footing Donnarumma (0-1, 22nd). Suffice to say that with this Madrid goal and outnumbered for the rest of the match, it smelled very bad for Guardiola’s men… Courtois still made a decisive save in front of Haaland (22nd), and on the following action, Vinicius Jr missed the 2-0 after another solo rush (23rd). The match was disjointed and Haaland, then Rodri, lacked new hot situations (26th), while Vinicius, at close range after a caviar from Guler, missed the target (28th). Opportunities on both sides, before the frenzy calmed down a little after half an hour of play. Brahim Diaz humiliated Ruben Dias, but shot at Donnarumma (37th). On the left side, Doku eliminated Pitarch, crossed and, as best he could, Erling Haaland propelled the ball deep (1-1, 41st). Enough to give a glimpse of some last hopes to his family just before half-time…
Arsenal did not tremble
It was necessary to point out the injury to Courtois on the Madrid side, and the Belgian was replaced by Lunin at the break. Nothing to disturb Arbeloa’s troops, who went on the attack again. Brahim Diaz, on his legs today, found Vinicius Jr but the Brazilian did not fit into the area (46th). On his first intervention, Lunin threw himself to the ground to release a providential hand on a shot from Haaland (49th). City were starting to seriously dominate, with a devilishly good Doku on their left flank. Pep Guardiola notably decided to take Haaland out in the 55th minute, which might seem surprising given the scenario of the match. Real Madrid held on well, being well in place and with very attentive and concentrated players, losing very few duels. Kylian Mbappé returned to the field after 5 games of absence (69th), while Donnarumma prevented the 2-1 with a beautiful tap on a header from Tchouameni (70th). On his first ball touched, the Bondynois saw his shot pass relatively close to the right post of his former teammate in Paris (71st). We felt that Mbappé was quite energetic, voluntary and participatory, but a little clumsy in the last gesture. At the end of added time, Vinicius Jr scored his double, catching a good cross from Tchouameni with the flat of his foot (1-2, 90th+3). Real Madrid, which no one really took seriously before the double confrontation, will be there for the quarter-finals of their favorite competition.
In the other match of the evening, after the 1-1 draw in the first round, Arsenal welcomed Bayer Leverkusen to London with this ticket for the quarters at stake. Mikel Arteta logically brought out the big team, with Saka, Eze, Trossard and Gyökeres to hurt the Bundesliga team. And very quickly, the Gunners took the lead and requested a decisive Blaswich on Trossard (16th), while Gabriel narrowly missed the target with a header (21st). The Bayer goalkeeper still made decisive interventions, on Saka (27th) then Trossard (29th, 32nd). But the offensive forcing of the Londoners would pay off. It was Eberechi Eze who opened the scoring, with a sublime goal. The English international thus fired a half-volley from outside the area, and the ball was going to lodge under the Blaswich bar (1-0, 36th). The second period started with the same configuration, with a dominant Arsenal team, and many hot situations for the Cannonniers. What had to happen therefore happened and it was Declan Rice who made the break (2-0, 63rd). The Three Lions midfielder placed, from outside the area, a well-aimed shot flush with Blaswich’s left post. Without too much difficulty, Arsenal lived up to its status as leader of the best championship in the world and will be there in the quarter-finals.
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– UPDATE
