Champions League quarter-final recap

The first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal games were played on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday Liverpool faced Porto at Anfield and many expected Liverpool to win emphatically. It did not take them long to find the back of the net, with Keita getting his second goal in a week after a big deflection off the Porto defender. Salah then came close to scoring the second in the 21st minute when he got past the last defender but as the keeper came out to charge him, he could only put the ball wide of the goal. Firminho got the second goal of the night 5 minutes later after some good play Alexander-Arnold crossed it to Firminho who put the ball into an open net. Porto had a couple of chances to get an away goal but could not bury them. The second half was a lot more mundane and there wasn’t much action. The game ended 2-0 for Liverpool.

The other game on Tuesday was the all English clash between Tottenham and Manchester City at Spurs’ new stadium. The game started with a lot of intensity and Manchester City were awarded a penalty in the 12th minute when the ball stuck Rose in the arm. The referee initially didn’t give it but after consulting VAR he awarded the penalty. Aguero stepped up, however, Lloris was up to the task and saved the penalty. Since the start of 2019 Lloris has saved all three penalties he has faced. In the 56th minute, Delph went in for a heavy tackle on Kane, which resulted in him having to be substituted. Pochetinno said after the match that the injury did not look good and Kane might be out for the rest of the season. In the 78th minute Son received the ball from Erikson, and it looked like he mis-controlled it and that it went out, but he was able to keep it in and score the only goal of the game.

On Wednesday the repeat of the 2009 and 2011 Champions League finals happened when Barcelona traveled to Old Trafford to face Manchester United. Barcelona were favorites coming into the match and got an early lead when Messi crossed the ball to Suarez who headed the ball in off Shaw. The goal was initially ruled out for offside but after a VAR review, the goal was given. Messi had a quiet night and Barcelona seemed out of sorts in general. There were many misplaced sloppy passes, however, Manchester United could not capitalize and Barcelona take home an away goal and a clean sheet into the second leg.

The final game was between Ajax and Juventus at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Both teams had good opportunities in the first half, and you could not separate the two teams. That was until the 45th minute when Cancelo put in a beautiful ball to Ronaldo who got past his marker to head to ball home right before half time. The second half started electrically when Ajax scored within 30 seconds off the kick-off after Neres scored a stunning goal. Both teams searched for the second goal but with no success and the game ended 1-1.