Champions League quarter-final second leg recap

On Tuesday Juventus hosted Ajax in the second leg, after the first leg ended 1-1. Juventus were favorites to win this game, especially with Ronaldo in their ranks. On the 28th minute, it was no other than the man himself when Juventus had a corner that found Ronaldo who headed home his 126th goal in the competition. The lead did not last long, as six minutes later Ajax were level after Van De Beek was able to just narrowly stay onside and slot home the equaliser. In the second half Ajax captain, De Ligt rose above two Juventus defenders to score from a corner which proved to be the winning goal. This sent Ajax through to their first Champions League semi-final in 22 years.

The other match on Tuesday was between Manchester United and Barcelona, which ended 0-1 for Barcelona in the first leg. Manchester United started brightly and Rashford hit the crossbar within the first minute. It looked like United might have a chance after they had a couple of opportunities in the first 10 minutes. However, as the game progressed Barcelona got into their stride and in particular, Messi. Young lost possession easily, and Messi capitalized by shooting from outside the box and finding the bottom left-hand corner. Four minutes later he had another attempt that did not have a lot of power in it but still squeezed in under De Gea. United could not really see a way back from here, and in the 61st minute, Coutinho struck a beauty into the top right-hand corner. This inflicted United biggest overall defeat in Europe.

The game of the ties was between Manchester City and Spurs and was probably on one of the best Champions League matches in many years. Spurs came into the game with a narrow 1-0 lead, however, it took City only four minutes to score first. Three minutes later Son got a goal back to make the game 1-1, and then on the 10th minute he curled a beauty past Ederson to make the game 1-2 for Spurs and give City an uphill battle to climb. That lead did not last long though, as a minute later Bernardo Silva latched onto a good ball from Aguero to level the tie. There was time for a little rest, until the 21st minute when Sterling got his second of the night. This was one of the craziest 21 minutes in Champions League history and it did not stop there. 15 minutes into the second half De Bruyne put in a beautiful ball to Aguero who scored to put City in the overall lead for the first time in the tie. Again, this did not last so long, as in the 73rd Minute Llorente scored from a corner to put Spurs in the driving seat. The goal was reviewed for a potential handball; however, the referee gave the goal. Even though City pushed hard for the equaliser it looked like Spurs were going to win it until the 93rd minute, when Sterling scored what seemed to be the winning goal and sent the whole Etihad into a frenzy. That was until the referee got informed that Aguero was marginally offside in the buildup and disallowed the goal. It went from ecstasy to agony for the Manchester City players and Spurs made it through to their first Champions League semi-final ever.

The last game of the tie was between Porto and Liverpool which Liverpool had won 2-0 in the reverse fixture at Anfield. Porto started well, however; Mane got a goal after some good improvisation from Salah. This meant that Porto needed four goals to go through, which is a hard task against a solid Liverpool defense. Salah scored another, before Militao got one back for Porto, little too late though. Firmino and Van Dijk also got goals to end the tie 6-1 on aggregate to Liverpool. The Reds will face Barcelona to play for a Champions League final ticket.