The first fixtures of this season’s Champions League Round of 16 were an impressive set of results for Premier League clubs as a whole and Liverpool in particular. Jurgen Klopp’s side were humbled at home to Real Madrid while neither Chelsea, Manchester City nor Tottenham Hotspur got the better of their half.
PSG must also come from behind if they are to go ahead at Bayern Munich’s expense, but make a short appearance from a decent half. Kylian Mbappe It is enough to give them hope.
Our writers Mark Ogden, Julian Lorenz, and Rob Dawson answer some of the big questions arising from this round of games.
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What caught your attention from the round of 16 with your first legs?
Ogden: Liverpool have been Champions League heavyweights for five years – playing in three finals and winning one of them – but their 5-2 defeat at home to Real Madrid on Tuesday seemed like the end of the road for many of Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Jordan HendersonAnd Trent Alexander ArnoldAnd Fabinho And Joe Gomez Everything looked better as Real Madrid put in an outstanding performance at Anfield. Henderson no longer had the legs to get around the pitch and deal with the talent Real Madrid have in abundance, while Alexander-Arnold and Gomez became responsible in defence. Meanwhile, Fabinho can’t control the game from his defensive position in midfield like he used to. Not so long ago, Liverpool dominated their opponents with their amazing attacking abilities and solid defence, but their game plan is now exposed due to the failures of previously key players. until Virgil van Dyck He looks like a player with his best days behind him.
Judging by their first-leg deficit and battle for promotion into the top four in the Premier League, Liverpool may not be in the Champions League next season, so they may have to start a rebuilding project in the Europa League – and that kind of future is unlikely. To appeal to top targets like Borussia Dortmund Jude Bellingham.
Dawson: There is no clear winner in the Champions League this year. Not only will the draw be opened when Liverpool and one Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain go out, but established favorites such as Manchester City have shown they are vulnerable. City certainly have a lot to do against RB Leipzig in Manchester after drawing the first leg 1-1 in Germany.
Real Madrid’s win at Anfield was their most impressive performance of the tour so far, but they were trailing 2-0 early on against a Liverpool side who had just had a disastrous season. City, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain will all believe they can lift the trophy in Istanbul, as will Napoli, Inter Milan and Chelsea. There are no fewer than seven teams with real hope of winning it, which should make for some exciting second-round encounters and an impressive quarter-final grouping once the draw has been made.
Lorenz: Four English clubs, zero wins. For all the talk of English dominance and Premier League supremacy, mostly because of their financial strength, the first-leg matches in the last 16 are a reminder that the rest of Europe can still be competitive. The results were also a wake-up call as Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have no margin for error in the relationships.
The big English clubs may have gotten too cocky, but it was absolutely disastrous for two weeks. Liverpool was devastated by Real Madrid, Tottenham were not good enough at Milan, Chelsea lost with a great goal, and Manchester City fell asleep after an hour. Of course, they could all still qualify (sorry, Liverpool fans, but not you) but even if managers Pep Guardiola, Antonio Conte and Graham Potter and their players qualify after the second leg where they play at home, the perception of English supremacy will have changed. It’s not unrivaled, it’s not miles better than the rest, and the last four English won’t be automatically complete, you get to it. But these four clubs will also want to show pride going forward. The return matches will be great.
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Leboeuf wants the referees to “wake up” after missing a penalty kick for Man City
Frank Lebov criticizes the referees for missing a penalty kick against RB Leipzig in the closing stages of the Champions League match against Manchester City.
Which team trailing in a tie has the best chance of advancing?
Dawson: Chelsea are going through a terrible run under Graham Potter, but they did enough during the 1-0 defeat by Borussia Dortmund to suggest they are more than capable of turning the tie around at Stamford Bridge. Whether they wanted it or not is another matter. Chelsea had 21 shots and eight shots on goal in Germany, but eventually lost with a brilliant solo goal Karim Adeyemi. Play the same way in London and Potter can look forward to the quarter-finals, and who knows there?
Chelsea certainly have the players to scare away favourites, if not form or confidence. Form is a big problem and Potter, just a few months after replacing Thomas Tuchel, is under pressure from fans if not owners yet. Four wins from 19 games is not a string of results to suggest they can go deep into the Champions League this season, but there were signs of life in the second-leg defeat to Dortmund and a chance to move fortunes.
Ogden: Tottenham were fortunate to return from the San Siro after only trailing 1-0 in the first leg against AC Milan after conceding several chances against the Italian champions. But having maintained Milan’s one-goal lead, Tottenham should be able to score goals to turn the tie around in their favor in the second leg.
This is perhaps the closest of all eight encounters in the last 16 in terms of the strength and quality of both teams. Neither of them will win the Champions League this season and the quarter-finals are likely to be the end of the road for any team that passes. But even though Spurs’ home record in their new stadium is patchy in the Champions League – Bayern Munich, Ajax Amsterdam and Leipzig have secured easy victories over Spurs – Conte’s side must qualify.
Lorenz: Paris Saint-Germain. For one simple reason: they have Kylian Mbappe. The Paris prodigy only came on as a substitute in a 1-0 defeat by Bayern Munich, but his 30-minute cameo changed the entire dynamic of the game. He sent the Munich players into a complete panic, creating chances and almost scoring. In two weeks at the Allianz Arena, he will be there from the start.
Mbappe may be PSG’s only hope, but boy is he good. If there is one player who can turn this confrontation around and beat Bayern Munich in their own backyard, it is him. Immediately after the end of the first leg, he began motivating his teammates for the second leg, insisting that qualification was possible. Mbappe will be on a mission in the second leg, and this is a scary idea for Bayern Munich.
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Why Napoli is anyone’s ‘nightmare’ in the Champions League
ESPN FC staff talk about Napoli’s Champions League credentials after their 2-0 win over Frankfurt.
After Liverpool were defeated 5-2 at Anfield by Real Madrid, what was the most exciting Champions League result you watched live?
Lorenz: Nothing will beat the 2005 final between Liverpool and Milan. There was a great thing RemontadaAmazing ups and downs in the last few years of course. But in Istanbul 18 years ago, something really surreal happened, a kind of magic that made Milan go from world-class players to afraid of their own shadow and made Liverpool play as if their lives depended on the end result.
I’ve never seen an atmosphere like this, with every half of the pitch going through every possible emotion. I have never seen a collapse of the magnitude that Milan suffered that night. Down 3-0 through 3-3, the big chances were missed in extra time when Liverpool were on the ropes again, and finally a penalty shootout. It was incredible. I can already guarantee you that nothing will get past Istanbul 2005.
Ogden: No one who was in Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Barcelona at Anfield in the 2018-19 semi-final second leg could claim to have attended a match more exciting, dramatic and memorable. Monaco’s 5-3 last-16 first leg defeat to Manchester City in 2017 was stunning in many ways – Radamel Falcao A teenaged Mbappe pushed the City defense wide to secure a victory in the second leg that led the French side to away goals, but while this game was outstanding, Barcelona couldn’t be bettered in defeating Liverpool.
Anfield on a special European night. Liverpool players turn around because of the atmosphere and opponents can be overtaken, as was the case with Barcelona that night. An enduring memory is that Liverpool fans turned on the former champions Luis Suarez, who was now playing for Barcelona. Suarez was a darling at Anfield but with Champions League brilliance on the line even he taunted the hostile crowd, who played their part in Liverpool’s historic victory.
Dawson: The 2011 Champions League Final was shocking not because of the result, but because of the way Barcelona totally dismantled the Manchester United team who were playing in their third Champions League final in four years. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side established themselves as one of the dominant forces in Europe, but at Wembley they were ousted by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona who treated the match like a training session for most of the second half.
The most memorable part of the match was the half-time break. Somehow, after Wayne Rooney’s equalizer from nothing, United went into the half with the score at 1-1. Anyone checking the score would have thought United were good in the game but the thousands of fans who came from Manchester were almost silent for the first half. It was as if they knew what was going to happen, and they were right. Barcelona managed to win 3-1 as United barely touched the ball during the second half.
Finally, pick the eight quarter-finalists!
Ogden: Tottenham, Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Real Madrid, Napoli, Porto, Manchester City.
Dawson: Bayern, Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Porto, Benfica, Napoli and Real Madrid.
Lorenz: spurs, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Real Madrid, Napoli, Inter and Manchester City.
