A Harry Kane-less Tottenham got exactly what it needed in a 4-3 loss to Manchester City as the Spurs will advance to the UCL semifinals, 4-4 on aggregate by way of away goals.
The Spurs held a 1-0 advantage from the previous meeting back in London.
The first goal between Liverpool and Porto at Estádio do Dragão on Wednesday was vital. If Porto scored it, game on; if Liverpool scored it, game over. What’ll be so frustrating for the Portuguese club is that through the match’s opening 25 minutes, the home side had 13 attempts. Porto absolutely bossed Liverpool right up until Sadio Mané had the ball in the back of the net in the 26th minute with the Reds' first shot of the evening.
The Ajax love-in shows no sign of abating following Tuesday’s incredible 2-1 victory over Juventus in Turin. The party in Amsterdam raged through the night, while over in Italy Juventus business shares plummeted as much as a quarter in value.
Ah, the Champions League. A bastion of European Football and a staple of any footy fan’s season. There’s certainly a lot to love about the competition: goals, matchups, drama and more — but mostly the goals. Something characteristic of European competitions, both the Champions League and the Europa League, is the scoring. The away goals rule is important because it prevents tie-breakers and can change the mentality of how teams play. Here’s how Champions League scoring works.
Ajax has advanced to the semifinals of the Champions League for the first time since 1997 after tearing Juventus apart with a glorious second-half display of footballing excellence that ultimately yielded the game-winning goal from captain Matthijs de Ligt in the 67th minute.
The Amsterdam-based club scored two at Juventus Stadium — which is an exceptionally rare feat for an away side — but it could’ve been four or five but for the goalkeeping of Wojciech Szczesny and an Ajax desire to combine on six backheels and three disguised reverse passes within the box before every shot.
Cristiano Ronaldo 4.0 is up and running at Juventus Stadium. His age is 34, which typically alludes to ever-present bodily soreness and general feelings of lethargy, but Ronaldo 4.0 includes updates on foxiness in the box, elastico nutmegs and improvements on crushing the dreams of everyone else in European competition.
Here’s "He That Is More Machine Than Man" coming alive during the Champions League anthem, as he’s done time after time en route to scoring 126 UCL goals, including 65 in the knockout stages.
When you’ve recently churned out talent like Marco Reus, Mario Götze and Christian Pulisic, people get a bit more interested in the next generation of young lads at the Hohenbuschei training ground in the quiet Dortmund suburb of Brackel.
It was quite the evening for Serie A’s Atalanta as it hosted visitors Empoli at the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia in Bergamo. The sixth place side has been impressive in recent seasons, putting on good performances in the Europa League and doing well in Serie A.
The odds of Atalanta beating Empoli were very high as the visitors sat 18th, in the relegation zone. What looked like quite a routine match was completely turned on its head. No, Empoli did not beat Atalanta with a smash and grab, but Atalanta did not beat Empoli either.
If you’re an American who’s somewhat befuddled by the simultaneous competitions that seemingly rage endlessly in European soccer — particularly the difference in Champions League vs Premier League — here’s a quick primer to set you straight so that you can enjoy both struggles to the fullest.
The Premier League
The adventures of 19-year-old Benfica phenom João Félix continue. Days after becoming the youngest-ever scorer of a hat trick in the Europa League, Félix scored his 11th goal of the Primeira Liga season in Benfica’s 4-2 victory over Setúbal.
The kid’s been dubbed “the next Cristiano Ronaldo” because he comes from Portugal, does a lot of goals and that’s a really good moniker to drive clicks, but he really doesn’t play like Ronaldo. He’s probably more akin to “the next Kaká.”