There is no doubt about the fact that the UEFA Champions League is the best league in the world as far as club football is concerned. It never fails to amaze us with the twists in the tales and that is exactly the reason why we stay awake even at midnight to witness the nail-biting action.
Yesterday, it was no different as 4 teams stepped onto the field with only one aim and that is to book a place in the all-important semi-finals. In the city of Manchester, it was Liverpool who took on Manchester City and in the other game, it was Roma hosting Catalan giants, Barcelona.
If we go back to the first legs of both the matches, it was Barcelona and Liverpool who came out on top at their respective homes.But as I have said earlier, this is the Champions League and you cannot say that a tie is over until it is actually over.
Talking about the game at Manchester, the home team needed 3 goals at least to bring the match to a tie after the humiliation they faced at Anfield. Keeping that in mind, Pep Guardiola fielded an attacking lineup to dismantle the Liverpool defence. City started the match extremely well after Gabriel Jesus netted their first goal within just 2 minutes of kick-off giving the City fans some ray of hope.
The English League leaders dominated the whole first half with a number of attacks which could have led to a goal. But the second half was a different story completely as Liverpool struck twice through Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino ending City’s hopes of moving to the next round.
Now, shifting our attention to the second game between AS Roma and Barcelona, the whole world thought that it would be a cakewalk for the Spanish giants after they netted 4 past the Italian side at Camp Nou.
But things do not always turn out as we expect it to be as Roma surprisingly moved into the prestigious semi-finals scoring 3 important goals without a reply from Barcelona.
It was Edin Dzeko’s crucial away goal at the Camp Nou which decided the tie after 90 minutes. Barcelona fielded a full team and even Lionel Messi could not rescue them from getting eliminated last night. Edin Dzeko, De Rossi, and Kostas Manolas were on the scoresheet for Roma as they scripted one of the most epic comebacks in the Champions League history.
