Let’s continue this week with Champions League football
The decisions will be made in the UEFA Champions League for the next two days. The returns will be played in the quarter-finals on Tuesday and Wednesday. Which clubs qualify for the semi-final? Chelsea, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain start with a lead, but will these also be the four teams that continue?
The four quarter-finals UEFA Champions League
The first two returns of the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals will be completed on Tuesday evening. Chelsea and FC Porto compete against each other in London. Simultaneously, the top match between Paris Saint Germain and Bayern Munich is finished in Paris.
Chelsea – FC Porto
The Chelsea – FC Porto match is 2-0 for the London team after the first leg. Mason Mount, ex-Vitesse, was responsible for the 0-1. After the break, defender Benjamin Chilwell doubled the score: 0-2. As a result, Chelsea is in good shape with the return in their own stadium still ahead. Coach Thomas Tuchel: “The most important thing for the return is that we forget that we have a good starting position. Last week’s victory is in the past and in top sport. The past is totally irrelevant,” Tuchel said at his press conference on Monday.
“It might be easier for Porto than for us because they know they have to score twice anyway. We must not lose our heads and play the best possible match imaginable. My team is tough to play against and does not have to be afraid of anything.”
Chelsea already fueled confidence for the return match against FC Porto on Saturday by winning the away game against Crystal Palace 1-4. Four days after the second meeting with the Portuguese, “The Blues” awaits the all-important showdown with Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals.
“If we want to end the season with a prize, we have to win the next two games. Otherwise, it will be difficult”, Tuchel emphasized at the end of the press conference.
Paris Saint Germain – Bayern Munich
Last week, it went very spectacularly at the top match of this round. PSG brutally took a 0-2 lead with goals from Kylian Mbappé and Marquinhos. Bayern seemed to have no chance to go down, but Bayern attacker Maxim Choupo-Moting brought back the tension before half-time: 1-2.
Shortly after the mandatory break, it even became 2-2. Good-old Thomas Muller took care of the equalizer. Man-of-the-match, however, became Mbappé. The PSG star signed for the winning goal in the 68th minute: 2-3. Bayern coach Hans Dieter Flick: “The opponent (PSG, ed.) Has scored three goals from few chances. But the way we played was impressive, “said the Bayern coach after the 2-3 defeat at home.
Flick continues his analysis: “With our chances, we could have achieved a good result with three goals against. We were clearly not efficient enough, but I am delighted with our performance, even if you don’t like to lose at all. We have one more game to go. We want to go to the semi-finals. We cannot change the result of this evening, but we can arrange it next Tuesday.”
Attacker Thomas Müller realized that Bayern was mainly responsible for the defeat. “Of course, you can discuss the goals against. But we just have to make more goals ourselves. If it becomes 5-3 or 6-3, then nobody can say anything about it. Now we have to catch up. If we had had the killer instinct, we would have seen a completely different match.”
Borussia Dortmund – Manchester City
Finally, the game is between Dortmund and Manchester City. City won 2-1 in Manchester and will still have a lot to do with Dortmund in Germany. Pep Guardiola: “We are not going to Dortmund to defend now. We also want to dominate and exert pressure in Germany. We will have to enforce our place in the semi-finals of the Champions League ourselves.”
Liverpool – Real Madrid
At Liverpool – Real Madrid, the tension seems to be gone. Real won 3-1 and seemed to have given the English champion the final blow in the first leg. “Everyone says Real Madrid is the favourite, and we have no problem being the challenger,” Klopp added. “We are not out for revenge here,” he told a press conference on Monday. “I don’t really believe in revenge, but it would be nice to get through it. Madrid is excellent. This game has nothing to do with our somewhat lesser Premier League season. If we are better than Real Madrid or score more goals, we can move on to the next round.
Jurgen Klopp keeps confidence and says: “We are still in the race for semi-finals.” “We are still in the race to make it to the Champions League semi-finals. We have to make up for the 1-3 deficit on Real Madrid on Wednesday. That’s not going to be easy because they are perfect at the moment. They are also very experienced. If a club knows how to win the Champions League, it is Real Madrid.” Klopp thus refers to the recent final victories of the Spanish football superpower. Real won the tournament in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
