Champions League

2022 - 3 - 8

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Image courtesy of "Manchester City FC"

Fernandinho nominated for Champions League Player of the Week (Manchester City FC)

Fernandinho has been shortlisted for the Champions League's Player of the Week award following his display in Manchester City's goalless draw with Sporting.

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Image courtesy of "Inside World Football"

PSG crash out of Champions League to Benzema-inspired Real ... (Inside World Football)

March 10 – PSG and the fabled Messi-Neymar-Mbappe trio are out of the Champions League after Karim Benzema masterminded a dramatic 3-1 victory for Real ...

The result will leave PSG devastated. This is the worst that could happen to us. I don’t understand why the referee didn’t call VAR. From this action, everything changed in the stadium, our players were upset, even if we must recognize that we made mistakes.

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Image courtesy of "Sports Illustrated"

Fernandinho Provides Update on His Manchester City Future After ... (Sports Illustrated)

Manchester City have cruised through to the quarter-finals of this season's UEFA Champions League after a convincing 5-0 aggregate victory over Sporting CP.

He'll sit with the club and they'll make the best decision for the club and him." A great achievement for me and I thank my teammates," the midfielder concluded. The manager echoed his thoughts tonight, also telling BT Sport, "We see at the end of the season, he knows it.

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Image courtesy of "CBSSports.com"

UEFA Champions League: PSG cannot expect to keep Kylian ... (CBSSports.com)

Kylian Mbappe scored twice over both legs of Paris Saint-Germain's UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie with Real Madrid and it was still not enough to ...

Will the necessary changes be made to aid UCL success, though? Such is Mbappe's unique position in the game (and perhaps in the future of Real Madrid) that he was even afforded a pre-game ovation. The only solution is a deep cleanse. This latest European embarrassment spelled out that the Ligue 1 leaders are still well short of being ready to win the Champions League. Pochettino's time in charge has been an utter failure and Mbappe will recognize this more than most given that the Argentine has overseen the final 18 months of his stay in Paris and put paid to his hopes of winning the first Champions League title for the club. Unlikely. PSG's problems appear to be rooted away from the pitch where they boast arguably as complete a squad as any of their UCL rivals.

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Image courtesy of "DraftKings Nation"

Champions League bracket 2021: How the quarterfinals round is ... (DraftKings Nation)

We break down how the UEFA Champions League knockout bracket is shaping up for the final eight teams.

This team was a runner-up in the Europa League has season and has the defensive chops to create some chaos in the quarterfinal round. Manchester City went up 5-0 on aggregate in the first leg and was able to play the second leg out with no fuss. Munich won all six of their games in the group stage, finishing on top of Group E with 18 points and a tournament-best +19 goal differential. With a massive 8-2 aggregate score, Bayern Munich moves onto the quarterfinals and will await their opponent in the draw. The 2019 UEFA Champions League winners have qualified for the quarterfinals again, making it the second year in a row they’ve reached this stage. Several teams have already moved on to the quarterfinals, sending their Round of 16 opponents home in the process.

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Image courtesy of "TSN"

Benzema scores hat trick, Madrid rallies to oust PSG from CL (TSN)

MADRID (AP) — Real Madrid fans started the evening by applauding Kylian Mbappé and ended it by cheering Karim Benzema and celebrating another epic Champions ...

He also had one goal called back for the same reason in the second half. It was the 27th Champions League goal for the 23-year-old France forward with PSG, leaving him three shy of Edinson Cavani’s club record in the competition. Madrid reached the last eight for the second straight season after consecutive eliminations in the round of 16. More than 60,000 were on hand for the biggest crowd at the Bernabéu since the coronavirus pandemic started. He surpassed Olivier Giroud, who was 34 years, 63 days when he hit a treble for Chelsea at Sevilla in 2020. “It was a difficult match and it got even more complicated after their first goal.

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Image courtesy of "TSN"

Carson makes rare CL appearance as Man City reaches quarters (TSN)

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — With Manchester City's progress to the Champions League quarterfinals never in doubt, even backup goalkeeper Scott Carson could ...

In the night's other last-16 second leg, Karim Benzema scored a hat trick as Real Madrid rallied to beat Paris Saint-Germain 3-1. And he made the biggest save to not lose the game.” The 36-year-old third-choice goalkeeper replaced Ederson in the 73rd minute and maintained a clean sheet as City drew 0-0 with Sporting on Wednesday, having won 5-0 in the first leg in Lisbon last month.

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Image courtesy of "ESPN"

When is the Champions League quarterfinal and semifinal draw? (ESPN)

The draws for the quarterfinals and semifinals of the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League will be made at 11 a.m. GMT / 7 a.m. ET on Friday, March 18.

For the quarterfinals and semifinals, teams from the same city cannot be not scheduled to play at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control. To avoid such a scheduling conflict, if two teams from one city are drawn to play at home for the same leg, the order of legs of the tie involving the team with the lower domestic ranking in the qualifying season is reversed from the original draw. After the quarterfinal draw, a separate draw is held for the semifinals (and there is then a third draw to decide who would be considered the "home" team for the final).

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Image courtesy of "Sporting News"

Champions League betting odds, favorites, expert picks ... (Sporting News)

With five of the eight Champions League matchups either level or within one goal after the first leg plus, there's plenty of intrigue heading into the ...

Since the first leg, Sporting has gone back to its usual destruction of the Portuguese league, with a 2-2 draw against league leaders Porto followed by 2-0 and 4-1 wins over lesser opponents. The first leg between Bayern and Salzburg felt like an anomaly. The bottom seemingly dropped out of the Italian side, losing to 10th-placed Sassuolo and drawing with 19th-placed Genoa in the Italian Serie A, held goalless in both matches despite a combined 4.68 expected goals (xG) tally. With the midfield duo of Dani Parejo and Etienne Capoue pressing extremely high against Juve last time out and controlling the flow of play, expect Villarreal to produce another shock, this time in Turin against a wounded Juve side. Dusan Vlahovic remains one of Europe's most dangerous strikers, but he was held to a single shot after the early goal in the first leg and failed to win a single aerial duel. To end up with a 1-1 draw after the early goal could be seen as a missed opportunity. Chelsea could play more conservatively, but the Blues could also overwhelm its opponent again, so best to keep things simple here. Still, there should be more than enough firepower with Kai Havertz in good form and Romelu Lukaku still looking to contribute even off the bench. Lille has proven an inconsistent Ligue 1 outfit this season, and over the past few months that hasn't changed. The risk of a push at +1 introduces plus-money odds (+130), but given the significant possibility of a close Benfica defeat, going to a +1.5 at -135 is a fair concession. With all to play for, the odds expect a cagey affair and we do too, so finding value here is tough. They say never bet two bad teams, and relative to the competition, these are two bad teams.

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Image courtesy of "UEFA.com"

Champions League quarter-finals: Bayern and Liverpool first teams ... (UEFA.com)

All you need to know about the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League quarter-finalists.

The 34-year-old has been diligent as successor to Hansi Flick, overseeing some fine displays and a cruise through to the last eight. He has maintained that form this season and is 2021/22 competition top scorer with 12 goals to his name. But it's what they do from now that will define the success of Julian Nagelsmann's debut season at the helm. Much like this Atlético side as a whole, the Portugal forward has grown into the campaign and is now a fixture in the side. Unai Emery's side have desperately missed the injured Gerard Moreno, but you have to give them credit for getting this far with their talismanic goalscorer reduced to a cameo role. When you throw in the fact they've already knocked out Juventus and are welcoming back Gerard Moreno from injury, they'll be confident they can go one better than their 2005/06 semi-final exit. However, they rolled back the clock with a classic display against United and might just be hitting form at the right time. The 30-year-old schemer passed 250 appearances for the club last season and remains a talismanic figure in their midfield despite the riches around him. They are so resilient and masters of backs-against-the-wall football, and will now look to add City to their recent list of English victims. How is it possible to lose at home to Sheriff, and then reach the last eight with a gargantuan performance against Paris? The route map helps explain. The former Mainz and Dortmund boss was a runner-up with Paris in 2020 before going one better with the Blues last season. And the man at the helm, Thomas Tuchel, has shown that he's one of the best around when it comes to motivating a team and keeping them goal-orientated from game to game.

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