Barcelona and Arsenal have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Source: Sports Press Photo / ddp USA / Profimedia
Barcelona and Arsenal have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The Spanish team managed to solve the question of the winner much earlier and avoid the drama against Napoli, while the English team managed to break Porto’s resistance only after the penalty shootout. Raja saved two penalties!
Barcelona finished the job first and passed among the top eight. Napoli won 3:1 (2:1) at home. Before the match, the first man of the guests, Aurelio de Laurentis, said that he had prepared bonuses for his players of 10 million euros for the victory, but they were left without that money and without passing on.
He led the Spanish team in the 15th minute after a goal by Fermin Lopez, and two minutes later the scoreboard read 2:0. Rafinha shot, hit the post, the ball bounced straight to the foot of Joao Cancelo, who routinely placed it into the net. The Italians responded in the 30th minute through Rahmani and announced uncertainty. They started attacking in the second half, tried to equalize, Osimen asked for a penalty, but nothing happened. Then, in the 83rd minute, the most beautiful action of the match followed, which was finished by Robert Levandovski and thus put an end to it.
Arsenal took the lead in the 41st minute through Trosar after a fantastic assist from Edegor. He had several chances to double the advantage, but he didn’t use them, so he finally found the back of the net in the 78th minute. However, VAR disallowed that goal due to a foul by Haverc. Žezus and Saka had chances in the continuation, but they did not realize them, which meant that the match went to extra time. Before the start of the added half hour, Marko Grujić entered the game instead of the injured Varela. Even after that, there were no goals, so the match went to penalties.
In the first series, Edegor and Akino scored, Haverc was safe in the second series, and then Raja saved a shot by Wendel. In the third series, Saka shot strongly and accurately, and then Marko Grujić took the ball. Raja hooked the ball, but it ended up in the goal. Rice then shot in the middle of the goal, and Galen’s shot was saved by Raja and that was the end!
The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Champions League is scheduled for Friday.
BONUS VIDEO:
00:10 Champions League, Zvezda – City, one hour before the start Source: MONDO/Dušan Ninković
Source: MONDO/Dušan Ninković