Champions League

After being eliminated at the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League for a third straight year, Manchester City and manager Pep Guardiola, perhaps unexpectedly, find themselves at a crossroads.

Despite the criticism that Guardiola has faced for his cautious tactics in the 3-1 loss to Lyon on Saturday and the questions about whether he is over-complicating the task in Europe, there is no suggestion that the City hierarchy has lost confidence in the Spaniard.

This was supposed to be the year for Manchester City. Having seen Liverpool run away with the Premier League title, Pep Guardiola’s side focused on the Champions League. The Citizens saw off Real Madrid in the Round of 16 and seemingly had an easy path to the semifinals after Lyon stunning Juventus.

But with just the seventh-place Ligue 1 side in its path, Manchester City once again stumbled in the Champions League.

Mauricio Pochettino once said he would rather return to his ranch in Argentina than coach Barcelona, yet he is now the top candidate to be their next manager as they look to the future after Friday's 8-2 drubbing by Bayern Munich.

Quique Setien is certain to be sacked after Barca were humiliated in the Champions League quarter-final, a result which completed a miserable season, as for the first time since 2014 they failed to win a major trophy.

LISBON — For the first time in 13 years, there is no Spanish team in the semifinals of the Champions League and the way in which Barcelona were dumped out, with an 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich, emphatically ended the era of LaLiga supremacy.

There was one basic similarity in the way that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid exited Europe this season — they simply looked too slow.

It is not that their players individually lack speed but that their styles of play lack the intensity and dynamism, the relentless pressing of the top German and English teams.

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said radical changes were needed from top to bottom after his side were annihilated 8-2 by Bayern Munich on Friday to exit the Champions League in one of the Catalan side's darkest ever nights.

"We feel devastated, although shame is the real word I'm looking for. We cannot afford to compete like this because it's not the first, the second or the third time that something like this has happened," a tearful Pique told reporters after the quarter-final drubbing, their worst ever result in Europe.

It’s impossible to forget Germany’s epic six-goal beatdown of Brazil at the 2014 World Cup. But for those who missed it, the first half of the Barcelona-Bayern Munich Champions League quarterfinal on Friday was a pretty good reenactment.

Bayern Munich relentlessly breached Barcelona’s vulnerable defense en route to a 4-1 halftime lead in Lisbon, stunning a Blaugrana side not used to facing such an onslaught.

Tyler Adams has not had the best of seasons with RB Leipzig. In and out of the lineup with injuries, fitness concerns and just not being picked, the 21-year-old American had appeared in just one Champions League match prior to Thursday. Looking healthy and eager, he made it count.

Adams scored an 88th-minute winner — his first career Champions League goal — to lift RB Leipzig to a dramatic 2-1 win over Atlético Madrid on Thursday. The strike sent the German side to the semifinals of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time. 

Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen took on Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer in a public spat last year over the Germany goalkeeper's jersey and the confrontation will be played out on the pitch in Friday's Champions League quarterfinal.

Only Lionel Messi can rival Ter Stegen, 28, for the title of Barça's most decisive player in the last few seasons, but his heroics for his club have not been enough to overhaul Neuer, 34, on the international stage.

Paris Saint-Germain’s last three European odysseys could largely be boiled down into a series of infamous images that haunted the club’s every waking moment. 

In 2016-17, La Remontada gave us Messi lording over the Camp Nou…

And the cursed image of Ángel Di María shushing the ground prior to Barça’s three-goal haul in the final seven minutes of the match. 

We admit, it’s easy to shit on Neymar; he’s the opposite of the hard-nosed player fawned over by traditional English media. 

He dances, he taunts, he teases, he flaunts. But on Wednesday, he also inspired.