Champions League

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.

One of the wildest Champions League matches of all time had one of the wildest endings imaginable.

Tottenham Hotspur — and VAR — threw a wrench into Manchester City’s quest for an unprecedented quadruple on Wednesday at Etihad Stadium in Manchester. Spurs lost 4-3 on the day but advanced 4-4 on aggregate by way of away goals into the Champions League semifinals, where Ajax awaits. 

Hi. Do you like goals? Do you love watching defenses get picked apart by strikers at the top of their game or defenders just deciding to neglect their duties? Well, we’ve got the game for you. The Man City-Tottenham first half of their second-leg Champions League quarterfinal was absolutely bonkers.

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. 

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. 

Manchester United started brightly against Barcelona at the Camp Nou on Tuesday. Marcus Rashford was in on goal and nearly scored seconds into the match. 

And the Red Devils had a bit of fortune when the VAR overturned a penalty decision to keep the scores level.

Then Lionel Messi broke loose with two goals in four minutes, quickly making up for a quiet first leg in Manchester (after being bloodied by Chris Smalling). 

In the Champions League quarterfinals, Barcelona came out with a solid 1-0 away victory over Manchester United.

It only took 12 minutes for Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez magic to commence, but neither will be credited for the Barcelona score.

A fantastic cross from the GOAT found Suarez on the far post. Suarez then headed it into traffic in front of the United goal and a bounce off left back Luke Shaw would be all she wrote for Manchester.

Juventus had no excuse not to be prepared. After what Ajax did to Real Madrid (not to mention Bayern Munich in the group stage), the Bianconeri knew they were in for a fight against the Dutch side. 

After one leg in the Champions League quarterfinals, it’s all even heading back to the Allianz Stadium in Turin. 

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a brilliant diving header just before the halftime whistle only to have David Neres score moments into the second half in a 1-1 draw on Tuesday at the Amsterdam Arena.