Arsenal, Sporting clinch stunning wins; City, Chelsea shown the door
London: Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain comfortably saw off English opponents Manchester City and Chelsea, Arsenal battled past Leverkusen and Sporting CP mounted a memorable comeback against Bodo/Glimt as the first four teams through to the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals are confirmed.
Real Madrid knocked Manchester City out of the competition for the third campaign running following Vinicius Junior’s double. Man City, 3-0 down from the first leg, came racing out of the blocks looking for the goal that could possibly spark a memorable comeback. But a combination of keeper Thibaut Courtois and several near misses kept the score goalless until a penalty that resulted in Bernardo’s dismissal — and a goal for Madrid on 20 minutes — made an arduous task near impossible. But City never gave up hope, and deservedly levelled the scores on 41 minutes through Erling Haaland and saw Jeremy Doku and Ryan Ait-Nouri have goals disallowed after the break. It was always going to be a big ask, but the Blues couldn’t have tried much harder and Vinicius Jr scoring with the last kick to give the Spaniard’s a 2-1 victory felt incredibly harsh.
Arsenal secured a quarterfinal spot with a 3-1 aggregate win over Bayer Leverkusen. Eberechi Eze and Declan Rice scored for the Premier League side. Sporting CP produced a remarkable comeback against Bodo/Glimt, overturning a 3-0 first-leg deficit with five goals, including two in extra time by Maximiliano Araujo and Rafael Nel, reaching the quarterfinals for the first time since 1982-83.
