Narrow victories and a huge surprise - UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
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| AFP |
Travelling sides headed home with little to show from the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-finals as the four matches yielded a goal-laden draw in Paris and three home wins in Munich, Barcelona and Wolfsburg. In the last of these encounters, the last-eight debutants from Lower Saxony pulled off a huge shock by bringing no less than ten-time champions Real Madrid to their knees.
FIFA.com looks back at the first quarter-final duels in Europe’s most prestigious club competition.
Results (second legs to be played on 12/13 April)
Bayern Munich 1-0 Benfica
Barcelona 2-1 Atletico Madrid
VfL Wolfsburg 2-0 Real Madrid
Paris Saint-Germain 2-2 Manchester City
Memorable moments
An offside goal brings the game to life
While few onlookers were surprised when the ball was fired into quarter-final debutants VfL Wolfsburg’s net after just 69 seconds, what happened over the next 90 minutes took everybody’s breath away. First Cristiano Ronaldo’s strike was ruled out for offside, before Die Wölfe’s Ricardo Rodriguez and Maximilian Arnold struck in the 18th and 25th minutes respectively to hand the outsiders a sensational first-leg victory.
Struggling for goals against Madrid teams
Although FIFA Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi usually scores at will, his pinpoint accuracy has deserted him over the past few days. During both his team’s 2-1 El Clásico defeat at the hands of Real Madrid at the weekend and Tuesday evening’s first-leg match against Atletico, La Pulga was unable to find the target for what would have been his 500th career goal, despite the fact that the latter team from the Spanish capital are among the Argentinian’s favourite opponents. In 28 previous meetings with Atleti, the 28-year-old has scored 25 times, including three hat-tricks – a tally no other player has yet reached.
From hero to zero, part one
Fernando Torres could have been the matchwinner when he put Atletico ahead in the 25th minute of their game at the Camp Nou for his first UEFA Champions League goal for the Rojiblancos. Instead El Niño’s moment of glory ended abruptly when he picked up his first red card in Europe’s biggest club competition just ten minutes later, forcing him to follow proceedings from the dressing room as Luis Suarez scored a second-half brace to turn the game in the Catalans’ favour.
From hero to zero, part two
Joe Hart experienced a similar rollercoaster of emotions in the Manchester City goal on Wednesday evening. The England shot-stopper saved a penalty from superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 14th minute only to concede a strange goal from the Swede a few minutes later. A short goal kick bounced off team-mate Fernando on the edge of the penalty area, prompting the Scandinavian striker to poke it into an empty net.
No regal recovery for Real
While Barça and PSG managed to turn around a 1-0 deficit in each of their games, Real Madrid ventured into uncharted territory in Wolfsburg. Los Blancos fell behind in the UEFA Champions League for the first time this season before promptly suffering their first defeat of the campaign. Conceding goals is a rare occurrence in itself for the Madrid defence, with Marcelo, Pepe and their team-mates letting in just three goals in eight European games this season – all in their 4-3 group-stage victory over Shakhtar Donetsk.
The stat
1001 – Defending champions Barcelona are the first club to reach the 1,000-point milestone in European competitions (based on three points for each win).
Decisive goal
Bayern Munich – Benfica
Goal: 1-0; Arturo Vidal 2’
Fans in the Allianz Arena had barely settled in their seats when events on the pitch prompted them to leap to their feet again. First Franck Ribery made a strong run down the left wing and cut the ball inside to Robert Lewandowski, who played the ball out to Juan Bernat. His subsequent cross found the head of Arturo Vidal, who nodded the ball home to give the hosts an early lead after exactly 108 seconds – the record German champions’ fastest strike in all competitions this season. It proved to be the only goal of the game.