We are at the point of all UEFA club competitions when we can hardly say anything is a huge surprise, but we are still left stunned after some of them. Whether it’s because of the number of scored goals or the way they end, we simply love the thrills of this week’s mid-week football matches.
Here’s the recap of the football action from across Europe and what we can prepare for in the quarter-finals of all UEFA club competitions.
Champions League Recap: Liverpool Out as PSG, Barcelona and Real Madrid Progress
We’ve certainly expected a lot of excitement from the PSG-Liverpool matches, and that’s what we got. Only the guests scored once in each match, and that’s why we saw the penalty shootout at Enfield, where PSG won comfortably.
Real Madrid can once again say that they are the masters of this competition.
Whether or not we agree with how they made it to the quarter-finals, the fact is that they have a way of coming out victorious from these thrilling matches.
They beat Atletico Madrid after another penalty shootout after a controversial (but justified?) decision to disallow Julian Alvarez’s penalty.
In another thrilling encounter, Dortmund won 3-2 on aggregate against Lille to progress to the quarter-finals, where they will meet Barcelona. Here are all the aggregate scores and quarter-final fixtures:
Tuesday:
- Barcelona 3-1 Benfica (aggregate: 4-1)
- Liverpool 0-1 PSG (agg: 1-1; 1-4 pens)
- Leverkusen 0-2 Bayern München (agg: 0-5)
- Inter 2-1 Feyenoord (agg: 4-1)
Wednesday:
- Atletico Madrid 1-0 Real Madrid (agg: 2-2, 2-4 pens)
- Aston Villa 3-0 Club Brugge (agg: 6-1)
- Lille 1-2 Borussia Dortmund (agg: 2-3)
- Arsenal 2-2 PSV (agg: 9-3)
The first leg quarter-finals will be played on 8-9 April, and the second on 15-16. These are the opponents:
- Arsenal vs Real Madrid
- Bayern München vs Inter
- Barcelona vs Borussia Dortmund
- Paris vs Aston Villa
Europa League Recap: Athletic Club, Tottenham, Lazio and Rangers All Narrowly Through
We also saw plenty of excitement in the Europa League matches last night, including one close penalty shootout. Rangers managed to knock Fenerbahçe out even though the Turkish side scored twice in the regular game to level the ground.
Athletic Club beat AS Roma 3-1 after losing the first leg 1-2 to narrowly progress to the quarter-finals, mostly thanks to Nico Williams. Tottenham also bounced back from a 1-0 defeat in the first leg to win 3-1 last night against AZ Alkmaar.
These are the scores after both Round of 16 legs:
- Athletic Club 3-1 Roma (agg: 4-3)
- Eintracht Frankfurt 4-1 Ajax (agg: 6-2)
- Lazio 1-1 Viktoria Plzeň (agg: 3-2)
- Olympiacos 2-1 Bodø/Glimt (agg: 2-4)
- Rangers 0-2 Fenerbahçe (agg: 3-3, 3-2 pens)
- Tottenham 3-1 AZ Alkmaar (agg: 3-2)
- Manchester United 4-1 Real Sociedad (agg: 5-2)
- Lyon 4-0 FCSB (agg: 7-1)
These are the quarter-final fixtures that will be played on 10 April, with the return matches on 17 April:
- Bodø/Glimt vs Lazio
- Lyon vs Manchester United
- Tottenham vs Eintracht Frankfurt
- Rangers vs Athletic Club
Conference League Recap: Extra Time and Penalties for the Thrills
Legia Warszawa won 2-0 against Molde, just enough to progress to the quarter-finals after losing the first leg 2-3. Panathinaikos was stopped in the Round of 16 by mighty Fiorentina after a 3-1 victory brought the Viola a spot in the next round, following an exciting 2-3 defeat in the first leg.
Chelsea won 1-0 in Copenhagen, which is all they needed to ensure they got through to the quarter-finals.
Jagiellonia still managed to secure its spot despite losing 0-2 to Cercle Brugge.
Lugano and Celje put on quite a show last night in Switzerland. The score after regular time was 4-3, then 5-4 after extra time, which was 5-5 on aggregate. Celje bested Lugano after a penalty shootout 3-1 to book a place in the next round.
Here are the complete scores of the Conference League Round of 16 matches:
- Djurgården 3-0 Pafos (agg: 3-1)
- SK Rapid 2-1 Borac (aet, agg: 3-2)
- Cercle Brugge 2-0 Jagiellonia (agg: 2-3)
- Lugano 5-4 Celje (aet, agg: 5-5, 1-3 pens)
- Chelsea 1-0 Copenhagen (agg: 3-1)
- Legia Warszawa 2-0 Molde (aet, agg: 4-3)
- Vitória SC 0-4 Real Betis (agg: 2-6)
- Fiorentina 3-1 Panathinaikos (agg: 5-4)
And these are the fixtures in the quarter-finals:
- Legia Warszawa vs Chelsea
- Real Betis vs Jagiellonia
- Celje vs Fiorentina
- Djurgården vs SK Rapid
We can’t wait for the quarter-finals and more European football action as we head to the national team window now and Nations League matches.
