Photo courtesy of Visionhaus via Getty Images, 2024
After a week of waiting, the fans finally know the teams who will play in the semi-finals of the Champions League, following the second leg of the quarter finals. PSG, Real Madrid, Dortmund, and Bayern will be in the last round before the finale, which will be held on the 30th of April and 7th of May.
But to earn their place, the four of them had to win their second leg, which did not disappoint. First off with the most tragic quarter-final, PSG managed to qualify after losing 3-2 during the first leg against FC Barcelona, who saw all of their chances fly away in the 30th minute after their defender Araujo committed a foul on the PSG winger, Barcola, who was left by himself in front of Barcelona goalkeeper. Despite Barcelona opening the score early on in the game, cumulating the score to 4-2, thanks to an amazing action lead by the 16 years old Lamine Yamal with his teammate, Raphinha, scoring his third goal within the two games, the advantage taken early on ended up not being enough. Playing at 10 against 11, in a Champions League quarter-final, has an enormous consequence on the strategy and morale of the players. This mistake made by Araujo conditioned the game and led to four goals scored by PSG against Barcelona during the rest of the game. Barcelona, who finally believed that they could reach the last round, ended up being humiliated, at home, as it has been every year since 2017.
On their side, Atletico Madrid did not manage to hold on to their victory in the first leg (2-1) against Dortmund. The Colchoneros, who were playing in Dortmund, did not manage to give their best presentation and fell under the pressure of the Champions League. The Spanish only scored 1 goal, as one of the two was an own goal scored by a Dortmund defender. On the other hand, Dortmund did a great game and managed to come back heavily after their loss during the first leg. The German team scored four goals during the second leg, two during the first half, and two during the second half of the game, which showed their domination as they had 19 shots against 10 only for Atletico Madrid. There was a clear difference in terms of content presented between both teams. Dortmund will now continue their journey against PSG in the semi-finals. Dortmund won this competition once in its history during the 20th century. The last time the German club was in the final of the Champions League, was 11 years ago in the 2012/13 edition against their direct virale Bayern Munich. The fans hope there will be a reenactment of this game, with a potentially different outcome for the eternal second that is Dortmund behind Bayern.
Bayern, after a draw against Arsenal during the first leg, managed to win with the smallest score of 1-0 after a goal scored by Kimmich during the second half of the game. The Gunners will not go further in the Champions League but can be proud of their journey as it was their first competition since the 2016/17 season. History is repeating itself as they already had lost against Bayern during their last participation. And despite what everyone was thinking, Bayern has experience in this competition even if they encounter many difficulties this season, they never fail to show their best level in the Champions League. No British team qualified for the last round, which means that no British team will compete in Wembley for the final in June.
And it is against the last Spanish team out of three that Bayern will try to win their ticket for the final in Wembley. Real Madrid managed to win a very complicated game against Manchester City. This was maybe the most interesting and suspenseful draw for the quarter-finals as both teams first tied with a 3-3 and then tied with one goal for each team. To decide who would qualify for the semis, both teams had to go through 30 minutes of extra time and then penalties, which ended up favoring Real Madrid, as Manchester City midfielder, Bernardo Silva, missed his penalty. Real Madrid therefore managed to kick out the current holder of the Champions League, who was judged by the fans to have made a better game with 68% of the possession and 33 shots at the goal. Real Madrid parked the bus the whole game and managed to lead the game to penalties, which ended up in their favor. Football can sometimes be unfair.
Everyone is now waiting for the semi-finals, as they will decide who will compete in the Wembley final. In the meantime, these four teams still hope to pretend to be the next holder of the Champions League, for the last edition under the current rules.
Sophomore Agathe Vanmassenhove is the Sports Editor. Her email is avanmass@fandm.edu.