Four games down, twelve to go. The Champions League was must see TV this week and it fulfilled even the highest expectations
As I mentioned in one of my previews earlier this week, the Chanpions League is a totally different competition in the knockout stage. The last two Champions finished second in their group before turning in the second semester.
Three out of the four winners finished second in their own group, granted they all played at home, it's a small sign nonetheless, after all while I thought it was possible I didn't imagine seeing Liverpool or PSG losing especially in the way that they did it and who saw that 4-1 from Atalanta coming, I picked them go through but I expected a tighter match in the first leg
Let's get into each specific match and reviews what happened in the first 90 minutes
Borussia Dortmund 2 x 1 PSG:
In a thrilling contest the German side got the win with a couple of goals from the new wonderkid of the football world, Erling Haalnd. Neymar got the goal for PSG.
There are a lot of interesting things to talk about in this match, but let me start off with this. I picked PSG to go through, but I had zero confidence on that choice. Be honest would it really shock you to see Dortmund advancing? No. What caught me off guard was how the match unfolded.
Borussia dominated Paris for basically the whole match and the result didn't reflect that dominance. They should've won by 2 at least. The scenario for the previous failures from PSG usually followed the same blueprint. The French side played well, build solid and sometimes outstanding results in the first leg only to fall flat at the most crucial time.
Listening to an interview from Marquinhos It was odd but revealing seeing him talking about how maybe this can be a new scenery for PSG. A side that's used to giving up big advantages maybe now that they need a win in the second leg it will turn out differently from them.
This is the classic match where a look at the stats will mislead you into a false notion of what happened during the 90 minutes.
Yes, PSG had more shots, the same amount on target and more possession but for anyone that actually saw the match it's clear that the home side had the upper hand.
Gueye had a really poor performance and if Sancho makes a better decision and passes the ball to Haaland he'd be an even bigger villain. Verratti proved who he is as a player once again. A very good one that you cannot trust in a big spot. It seems to be like he is always getting booked and missing important matches. I know that this might be a little bit exaggerated because any midfielder can accumulate yellow cards but it's how it looks.
What to say about Haaland, the kid looks special, the way he finished that second goal without giving the goalkeeper much time to get set tells you all you need to know about his intelligence and ability to score from all of this different places.
Watching the match and looking at the PSG bench. I saw two of the finest strikers in the world in Cavani and Icardi. The decision to leave them on the bench was understable based on how he wanted to play, but it didn't work. You want to keep Mbappé as close to the goal as possible even in the defensive phase and Neymar is not really known for helping out on the other end and if you put in one of the two number 9s against such a fast opponent that's really dangerous in transition, well it could get ugly.
It will be interesting to see what Tuchel does in the second leg without Meunier and Verratti both suspended. Will he use Kehrer as the right back? Will Icardi or maybe even Cavani play? Will he go with a more technical midfield? Maybe Draxler gets the nod. We'll just have to wait and see.
Stay tuned for the reviews of the other three matches.
As always leave a comment, let me know what you think, what surprised you most? Subscribe to the blog in order to receive daily notifications everytime a new post is out. I'll see you later.
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