UCL Quarter-Final; Points shared all over Europe tonight.
Just because Liverpool (my club) didn't qualify for this season's Champions League, I've deprived myself of the thrill of showing up to enjoy the tournament. I missed the entire group stages and round of 16 of the competition. However, the tournament has reached a stage where the fixtures can no longer be ignored.
Take this night for example. The two fixtures scheduled for tonight are;
Arsenal vs Bayern Munich
Real Madrid vs Manchester City.
Those are fixtures I won't ever want to miss regardless of my sentimental attachment to Liverpool. And, as you would expect from games in the Quarter-final of Champions League night, each of these games were incredibly entertaining with so much drama.
Arsenal 2 - 2 Bayern Munich
Saka opened the scoreline for Arsenal in the 12th minute of the game. That curved shot from him was ruthless. And a goal at that time in a game of this nature is a big advantage for Arsenal. However, anyone who knows anything about Bayern knows that it's too early to rejoice.
Arsenal let themselves down by committing a defensive blunder in the middle of their midfield. A lot of people are giving sticks to Arsenal's goalkeeper and his backline for that disaster. Gnarby capitalized on that error and punished Arsenal with a goal in the 18th minute of the game.
Leroy Sane stepped up afterward and dragged Arsenal from Bayerns box to the midfield and continued pushing forward until he won a penalty in Arsenal's box. Lol. That was a schoolboy defending from Arsenal. Leroy Sane made it look too easy to break that midfield and defense. Harry Kane stepped up for the penalty kick and scored. Of course, he scores against Arsenal. Haha.
Second Half...
Bayern were creating a shit ton of chances, but their finishing was poor. Arsenal's gaffer did a quick double substitution and that decision paid off real quick. Trossard got a goal for Arsenal after barely spending 10 minutes on the field of play.
A very controversial call was made with a few seconds to the end of the game. Saka had contact with Bayern's goalkeeper and a wild shout for a penalty was made by all Arsenal fans. The referee completely ignored that, allowed play to go on, and ended the game 15 seconds later.
Real Madrid 3 - 3 Manchester City
Man City really started this game with a shocking early goal against Madrid. That goal was so unexpected that Silva didn't even know how to celebrate the goal. Kudos to them. Although, they sure know that a team like Real isn't going to sit back and take the L.
As you would expect, Real Madrid bounced back almost immediately and quickly got two goals to equalize and also put themselves ahead before half-time. The goals came in the 12th and 14th minutes of the game. The rest of that first half was all about Real Madrid pressing Man City to death. It was stinky.
Second Half...
Man City got into a really good position after pressing a couple of times. This time around, Phil Foden had a goalscoring opportunity and took it without a blink. Well done to the lad. They leveled the score for Man City in the 66th minute. Now, the game is blown open for both sides.
You know Manchester City and their attacking ability. It only took 4 minutes after their equalizing goal for them to get one more in. This time around, the scoreline was 2 - 3. Manchester City are already with a goal advantage. You can imagine how intense the game became after this goal.
The Madrid folks were not ready to accept that scoreline. Vinicius laid a very sumptuous pass to Valverde. The cross was from the left side of the field to the right side. Valverde didn't hesitate. He used his first touch to level a ruthless shot and that was enough to level the scoreline.
As it stands, the first encounter for each of these teams in this stage of the competition ended in a draw. This means they would have everything to play for in the second leg. The build-up to that game would be wild.
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop or Comma.
All screenshots are taken from LiveScore
Thumbnail Image is taken from Unsplash
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