Photo Courtesy of Alex Caparros via Getty Images, 2024
March was an important month for the Champions League. The second leg of the total 16 games of the round of 16 gave us the names of the teams qualified for the quarters of the finale in the European competition. As most of the games in the first leg were open with final scores of 1-0 or 1-1, the suspense for the qualified teams stayed high until the final whistle was blown for each game during this second leg.
Only 8 of the 16 teams were able to go to the next round, and for once, only teams known as “big” in Europe qualified without any outsider influence. In fact, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, FC Barcelona, Manchester City, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Dortmund, and PSG qualified for the quarterfinals. Spain is the most represented country with three teams, followed by England and Germany with two teams each and France with only one team. Out of the big five (the biggest national leagues in Europe) only Italy is not represented – Inter Milan lost to Atletico Madrid and missed out on quarterfinals.
In fact, after winning 1-0 during the first leg against Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan lost to the Colchoneros at the Wanda Metropolitano due to penalties after going over time following a tie between both teams. Even if Atletico was winning the score 2-1, the goals were accumulated between both legs, which lead to 2-2 as Inter had won 1-0 in the first leg. Despite opening the score during this second leg, Inter Milan’s defense ended up being scored on by Griezmann and Memphis. All of this led to penalties, which are rare during eliminatory phases of the Champions League. Penalties have a 50-50 percent chance for each team, and worked out for Atletico Madrid this time, as the Argentinian forward Lautaro Martinez failed his shot.
Arsenal also had penalties against Porto with a cumulative tie of 1-1 as the Portuguese team had won the first leg 1-0. The British team was struggling as their last appearance in the Champions League was in the 2016-2017 edition in which they lost 5-1 against Bayern in both legs with a cumulative score of 10-2 for the German team. Since then, the Londonian team had not seen this level of European competition. This victory by penalties against an outsider like Porto scared the fans as they hoped their team would gain more confidence as they are lacking the experience for the next round.
As expected, the German team came back against Lazio by winning 3-0 after losing 1-0 against the Italian team. Despite having a rough time in their national league, Bayern Munich is always present in the Champions League by showing off to their opponents with at least three goals scored in almost every edition.
On the Spanish side, Real Madrid got scared as they tied against Leipzig. In fact, despite being one of the favorites for this edition and winning 1-0 during the first leg, Real Madrid was surprised by Leipzig despite opening the score thanks to Vinicius Junior, an incredible player.
Going over to Cataluña, FC Barcelona, who was awaited by their fans to qualify for the first time in four years to the quarter finals, put on a show against Napoli, against whom they had tied 1-1 during the first leg. The Blaugranas showed off one of the best football they played in a while despite the injuries of De Jong, Pedri, Gavi and Ferran Torres. Xavi decided to trust the youngsters of La Masia, Fermin Lopez, one of them, opened the scoring followed by the Portuguese Joao Cancelo and finalized by Robert Lewandowski to crush all hopes left on the Napoli side. One of the biggest revelations of the game was another youngster of La Masia, Pau Curbarsi. The 17-year- old center back won 100% of his duels during the whole game and didn’t let Oshimen, one of the greatest forwards in Europe, pass through the defense once. He was then named man of the match after his unreal performance for his first ever champions league game as a starter. Following this performance, Barcelona fans are now confident about a potential miracle to win this edition, as the season for the team started off horribly.
Following these results, the draw for the matches are done. The fans are saying that these might be the greatest quarters in years. They will be the following: Arsenal vs Bayern; Real Madrid vs Manchester City; PSG vs FC Barcelona; Atletico Madrid vs Dortmund. The winners of the first two fixtures will face each other and the same will proceed to the winners of the last two. The matches will happen in April for the pleasure of all the fans who will be enjoying the show of the last edition of the current Champions League.
Sophomore Agathe Vanmassenhove is the Sports Editor. Her email is avanmass@fandm.edu.