Largest winners and losers from Champions League quarterfinals

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A sensational Champions League quarterfinal stage is within the books. Earlier than we stay up for the semis on faucet, we’re reviewing the thrilling motion that left Actual Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, and Borussia Dortmund because the final 4 groups in Europe’s premier membership competitors.

Winner: Actual Madrid’s aura

Significantly, how do they preserve doing this? Manchester Metropolis dominated Wednesday’s second leg in opposition to Actual Madrid by each doable metric. The reigning champions had 34 shot makes an attempt. Actual Madrid mustered eight. Pep Guardiola’s crew gained 18 nook kicks. Carlo Ancelotti’s aspect earned only one, and that got here in additional time. Man Metropolis accomplished twice as many passes and compelled the guests to camp inside their very own penalty space for nearly all the match after Rodrygo’s early opening aim. The pitch might as effectively have been tilted. As soon as Kevin De Bruyne smashed house an equalizer from shut vary within the 76th minute, it felt just like the profitable aim was solely a matter of time for Metropolis. To a person, Madrid’s gamers seemed gassed. They exerted a lot bodily effort merely chasing the ball round for thus lengthy and spent much more psychological vitality making an attempt to keep up their defensive assignments and never lose focus for even a second in opposition to Metropolis’s swarming press, intricate motion patterns, and attacking onslaught.

And but, right here we’re. The perennial kings of the competitors are again within the semifinals after a charming shootout victory, and the holders – who had been chasing a second consecutive treble – had been left to surprise how, precisely, they had been eradicated. Most groups would crumble below the incessant weight of Manchester Metropolis’s strain, however Actual Madrid are usually not most groups. That is their competitors. A technique or one other, they (nearly) at all times discover a manner. Guardiola’s squad humbled them final season. The 14-time European champions, by means of sheer willpower and a few luck, would not let it occur once more. They’re now the undisputed favorites to hoist the well-known big-eared trophy for the fifteenth time. Who would wager in opposition to them?

Loser: Erling Haaland

Haaland wasn’t completely ineffectual on the Etihad. He hit the woodwork with a looping header within the first half and was a menace within the field all through Wednesday’s contest, occupying the eye of a number of defenders and opening up house for his teammates. That is baked into Metropolis’s model of play and effectiveness. For all of the discuss of Haaland’s involvement – or lack thereof – in his crew’s buildup, the suggestion that he does not contribute sufficient is solely inaccurate.

However, as soon as once more, he failed to seek out the web in opposition to Actual Madrid. He got here up empty within the one stat that issues most. Julian Alvarez is a chic expertise, however it was nonetheless jarring to see Haaland, the world’s most fearsome goalscorer, get the hook heading into additional time. Even with the potential for penalties looming, Guardiola thought the Argentine gave Metropolis a greater likelihood to win than the sport’s most prolific striker. Regardless of the way you slice it, that is an indictment on the Norwegian’s efficiency over the 2 legs. Actual Madrid did an distinctive job retaining Haaland quiet, and far of that credit score belongs to 1 participant particularly …

Winner: Antonio Rudiger

Rudiger was a monster within the quarterfinals. He was primarily chargeable for shutting Haaland down, particularly within the first leg in Madrid, the place he successfully shadowed the fearsome ahead all sport lengthy. His project wasn’t fairly the identical in Wednesday’s return fixture, however he anchored the resilient and resolute Actual Madrid backline all the identical. It is what he is been doing all yr, in fact.

Solely Fede Valverde has performed extra minutes than Rudiger for Ancelotti’s aspect this season. The German held issues collectively after the devastating knee accidents suffered by defensive friends David Alaba and Eder Militao. It was solely becoming, then, that he was the one to ship the decisive spot-kick that despatched Actual Madrid to the semis, getting a second immediately within the highlight after doing a lot soiled work within the trenches for his crew.

Loser: Premier League coefficient

Neither had something to do with the outcomes, however one among Aston Villa or Tottenham Hotspur might find yourself being amongst the largest losers of this week’s quarterfinal matchups. The pendulum simply swung violently in favor of the Bundesliga within the German division’s battle with the Premier League to safe a fifth spot in subsequent season’s revamped Champions League. Shedding each Arsenal and Manchester Metropolis whereas seeing Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich advance leaves the Premier League’s probabilities of securing the extra berth for the 2024-25 event hanging by a thread.

Barring some gorgeous comebacks within the Europa League, all the pieces might be sorted by Thursday night, with Italy’s Serie A the opposite prime tier all however assured of getting the coveted additional place. Out of the blue, the scrap for fourth place in England’s prime tier – a direct shootout between Villa and Tottenham – carries extra weight within the marketing campaign’s remaining weeks.

Winner: Ousmane Dembele

Ousmane Dembele confronted harsh, usually over-the-top criticism from each angle throughout his time in Barcelona. Followers, pundits, and even membership executives – chief amongst them Barca president Joan Laporta – criticized the French winger incessantly, particularly as his contract saga dragged on earlier than his eventual switch to Paris Saint-Germain. Although he was gracious when discussing his ex-club after Tuesday’s seesaw victory, inside, Dembele certainly revelled in knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League. How might he not?

That he performed a starring position seemingly solely made it sweeter. The lithe winger has solely scored three objectives all season, however two of them got here in opposition to Barca within the quarterfinal tie, together with the resounding end into the roof of the web that helped kickstart PSG’s comeback in Montjuic. Dembele, ruthlessly jeered by the Barcelona followers each time he touched the ball Tuesday, is heading to the Champions League semifinals, and his PSG aspect will likely be fancied to beat Borussia Dortmund and attain the showpiece match. Barca, in the meantime, can do nothing however lick the injuries inflicted on them by their former participant.

Loser: Xavi

Forward of the second leg in opposition to PSG, Xavi talked at size concerning the significance of sustaining a cool head and never shedding focus. That, he mentioned, could be essential if Barcelona needed to succeed in the Champions League semifinals for the primary time since 2019. However when it got here time to follow what he preached, the supervisor imploded. His crew adopted his lead. Xavi, incensed by the first-half purple card proven to Ronald Araujo, lampooned referee Istvan Kovacs after the match, branding the Romanian official a “catastrophe” who “doesn’t understood soccer.” The sending-off clearly modified all the complexion of the tie, however, in the end, it was the right resolution.

Regardless of Araujo’s prolonged protestations, there have been a number of factors of contact that introduced Bradley Barcola down, and Pau Cubarsi hadn’t retreated far sufficient to be thought-about the final defender on the play. Xavi by no means recovered from that incident. Each subsequent resolution that went in opposition to his crew was met with a sarcastic response on the touchline. It was no shock, then, when he lastly went overboard and acquired himself despatched off for an absurd response to a routine foul name. The timing could not have been worse; Xavi’s purple card got here two minutes after Vitinha scored to degree the tie at 4 apiece. He can blame the referee all he needs, however together with his crew self-destructing, the outgoing bench boss wanted to maintain his composure. Although a person down and with all of the momentum in opposition to them, Barca had been nonetheless only one shot away from taking an mixture lead on the time. As an alternative, 4 minutes after his coach was dismissed, Joao Cancelo, who himself had a tough outing, conceded a silly penalty that successfully accomplished Barcelona’s collapse.

Winner: Jadon Sancho

Just some brief months in the past, Sancho discovered himself banished from the Manchester United squad amid a bitter public feud with headstrong supervisor Erik ten Hag. His season completely derailed, the English winger’s whole profession was prone to stagnation at simply 24 years previous. Now he is a protagonist for a Borussia Dortmund aspect having fun with an unlikely run to the Champions League semis, whereas his Dutch adversary is preventing to save lots of his tenuous job each week. Fortunes can change rapidly.

Sancho might not have been the primary motive Dortmund managed to show the tide in opposition to Atletico Madrid, however his inventiveness and dribbling capability have added an additional spark to a Dortmund assault that always seemed stale and bereft of concepts earlier than his January arrival. They will be heavy underdogs of their semifinal conflict with PSG, but when Sancho is on his sport, he could cause issues for the French membership’s backline, particularly in transition.