This week saw the first four ties in the Champions League round of 16 played, whilst the last 32 teams in the Europa League played their first leg matches.
Champions League
The headline match of Tuesday night saw Tottenham Hotspur travel to Turin to meet Juventus and come away with a very creditable 2 -2 draw, in a match the away side largely dominated. The Spurs result was the more impressive because they were 2 – 0 down after just 9 minutes to two Gonzalo Higuaín goals, one from the penalty spot. However, Harry Kane pulled one back before half-time, and with Higuaín missing another penalty, Christian Eriksen levelled the tie with a free-kick in the second half.
The other match saw Premier League leaders Manchester City travel to Switzerland to play FC Basel, and thrash them 4 – 0 with goals from Bernardo Silva, Sergio Aguerro and a brace from Ilkay Gundogan. Barring an absolute miracle, City have already booked themselves a quarter-final place.
Wednesday night saw the eagerly awaited meeting between Real Madrid and PSG (Paris Saint-Germain). Such was the interest in this match, not only across Europe but around the world, that in Rio, home of the famous carnival, judging of the samba competitions and floats was brought forward to earlier in the day so that spectators could get home to watch the match!
12-times winners of the Champions League and defending champions Real went into the match under some pressure, after a disappointing La Liga campaign which sees them currently trail bitter rivals Barcelona by 17 points, with manager Zinedine Zidane fearing for his job if Real were to lose the match. PSG meanwhile have spent heavily on the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe precisely to compete in the Champions League, and were hoping to go deep into this year’s competition.
It was PSG who took the lead through Adrien Rabiot, only for Real to equalise on the stroke of half-time through a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty. Remarkably, it was the Portuguese forwards 100th goal in the Champions League, a record.
The match swung in the second half with the introduction of Real’s substitutes, particularly Asencio, and it was he who created the second goal, with PSG goalkeeper palming his low cross onto the knee of Ronaldo who scored his second of the match, and his 101st in the Champions League. Then Brazilian full-back Marcelo scored a third to give Real a clear advantage going into the second leg in Paris.
The other match saw Liverpool travel to a Porto side which came into the match top of their domestic league and unbeaten in 21 games. However, that made no difference, as the gap between the English Premier League and the Portuguese league was cruelly underlined as Liverpool handed Porto their biggest ever European defeat with a 5 – 0 thrashing. Sadio Mane scored a hat-trick, and there were goals for Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino as Liverpool notched up the biggest ever away win by an English side in the knock-out phases of the Champions League.
Europa League
With the matches all scheduled for Thursday night Red Star Belgrade’s meeting with CSKA Moscow was moved to Tuesday to avoid a fixture clash with Red Star’s city rivals Partizan, who are also drawn at home in the same competition. The match ended 0 - 0.
The other 15 first-leg matches were played on Thursday and provided few real surprises, as the more established clubs in the draw established clear advantages in their ties.
The only English club left in the competition, Arsenal, overcame sub-zero Swedish temperatures and a 4G artificial pitch to beat Őstersunds 3 – 0 , thanks to Nacho Monreal, Mesut Ozil and an own goal. Őstersunds missed a last-minute penalty.
Celtic, meanwhile, take a one goal lead into the reverse fixture with Zenit St. Petersburg due to a strike from Callum McGregor.
The other Russian sides had mixed fortunes. Spartak Moscow were beaten 3 -1 at home by Athletic Bilbao, whilst their city rivals Lokomotiv won 3 – 2 away at Nice.
One of the competition favourites, Atletico Madrid overcame the loss of an early goal to beat FC Copenhagen 4 – 1 away, with Antoine Griezmann among the scorers.
Another big name to establish a first leg advantage were AC Milan who won 3 – 0 away at Bulgarian side Ludogorets.
However, fellow Italian teams Atalanta, Lazio and Napoli, all lost. Atalanta went down 3 -2 at Borussia Dortmund, with Chelsea loanee Michy Batshuayi scoring twice for the home side. Lazio were beaten by a single goal way to Steaua Bucharest, whilst Napoli lost 3 -1 at home to RB Leipzig.
Elsewhere Sporting Lisbon beat Kazakh side FC Astana 3 -1, Marseille put three past Sporting Braga, and Lyon defeated Villarreal 3 -1.
Real Sociedad and Red Bull Salzburg drew 2 -2, whilst the ties between AEK Athens and Dynamo Kiev, and Partizan Belgrade and Victoria Plzen both finished one apiece.
