Revenge of "Atletico" and the fiasco "Monaco"
The current season in the performance of "Monaco" can only be described as a complete failure. Monegasques achieved only one victory in the national championship and occupy the penultimate place in the standings, and in the Champions League and did not know the taste of success. To a duel with Brugge, their lose-lose series comprised 14 meetings, and only two failures separated them from the repetition of the anti-record. Thierry Henry's wards could rectify their position in the game with their comrade in misfortune Brugge, who scored only one point in the first three rounds (which is not surprising, it was in the match with the red-and-whites).
However, the hopes of the hosts melted in the first half. In the absence of Alexander Golovin, Monaco was helpless and allowed the Belgians three times to upset Diego Bénaglio from the 12th to the 24th minute. Particularly zealous was Hans Vanaken, who designed his first double in the main European Cup in Europe. Wesley scored another goal at his own expense, and five minutes before the final whistle, Ruud Wormer set the final result on the scoreboard.
One of the central confrontations of the tour took place in Madrid. After a crushing defeat in the previous meeting, the men of Diego Simeone were eager to return the Borussia favor. Unlike the first match, where Atletico missed four unanswered goals, the mattress showed a firm game in defense and did not allow the opponent to deliver a single shot on goal. At the same time, they themselves eight times disturbed Roman Bürki.
As a result, two hits reached the goal. First, Saul scored, and 10 minutes before the end of normal time, Antoine Griezmann scored with a goal. It is worth noting that the Frenchman became the first Atletico footballer, who managed to score 20 goals in the Champions League. To achieve a similar result, it took him 50 games.
The first draw of “Barcelona” and the will of “Tottenham”
The match with a big sign took place in Milan. In this tournament, Inter has already had a sensation, having beaten the last-year participant of the playoffs Tottenham, and in the fourth round, he hoped to seriously beat Barcelona. The hosts' chances of success were also raised by the absence of leader rivals Lionel Messi, who continues to recover from a hand injury.
In the first half, the teams could not hit the opponent's gate, but gave a dramatic ending. At the 83rd minute, the Barcelona rookie Malcolm opened the scoring, and four minutes later Mauro Icardi answered him. For the Argentine scorer, this goal was the ninth in the last nine matches. The Catalans played in a draw and replenished their unfortunate statistics of exit performances. In the last nine guest meetings in the Champions League, "Blaugrana" won only two victories.
And in a parallel duel there was almost a sensation. Tottenham has already suffered two defeats in the current tournament draw and was a few steps away from the third. Londoners in their field took PSV, but at the start of the meeting were in the role of catching up. In the second minute, the gate of Paulo Gassanigi struck Luc de Jong. This season, he demonstrates a fantastic rate of fire, scoring eight goals in the last ten games.
However, at the crucial moment, the “spurs” were able to confirm their class and achieve a strong-willed victory. The author of the double was Harry Kane, who came out on the second place in the list of top scorers in the tournament. The winning ball forward became the capital club 50th in the Champions League. It is noteworthy that the author of almost half of these goals (22 goals) is exactly the 10th issue of Tottenham.
Thus, even the failure of “Barcelona” in Italy did not prevent her from becoming the first team to win a ticket to the playoffs of the Champions League. In the four starting meetings, the Catalans scored ten points and guaranteed themselves one of the two first places in the quartet.
A draw in Naples and a sensation in Belgrade
Despite the star cast, this season, Paris Saint-Germain is not yet a formidable force in the international arena. In the three starting rounds of the Champions League, the wards of Thomas Tuchel once won, tied and lost, and the trip to Italy also did not promise to be an easy walk for them. Hinted at it at least the outcome of the previous meeting, which was held at the “Parc des Princes” and ended in a military draw - 2: 2.
Parisians failed to take three points this time. PSG opened the scoring with the efforts of Juan Bernat, for whom this ball was the first in the tournament since November 2016. But to win this was not enough. In the middle of the second 45-minute, Lorenzo Insigne accurately executed a penalty, having distinguished himself in the third match in a row.
The main sensation of the day was the outcome of the duel in Belgrade, where an outsider of the Red Star group accepted the leader of Liverpool. Confident in the inevitability of the victory of his team, Jürgen Klopp made a small rotation, but was severely punished for it. The home team entered the field with outrageous motivation and by the end of the 30th minute they secured two goals. Milan Pavkov was noted as a double, Marco Marin, the ex-player of the German national team and Chelsea, twice acted as an assistant.
The head coach of the mersysaydtsev attempted to change the course of the unsuccessfully developing bout and already at the break he let Roberto Firmino and Joe Gomez out onto the field, but he failed to break the spirit of Serbian players. The reds pretty much went over the rally, and in a number of episodes goalkeeper Milan Boryan saved his team. The meeting ended with the victory of “Red Star” and to the limit it sharpened the fight for the start in the playoffs.
The defeat of the “Locomotive” and the success of “Schalke”
For Russian fans, the main match of the day was held in Porto, where the eponymous club met with Lokomotiv. The railway workers began to meet very nervously and missed the second minute. Positional mistake Muscovites took Hector Herrera. Wards Yuri Semin tried to take the game from their gates and even had several excellent chances to even the score, but eventually missed the second time.
During the break, Lokomotiv head coach released Jefferson Farfan instead of Manuel Fernandes and did not lose. It was the Peruvian who managed to reduce the backlog in the account, with an elegant nod of his head, hitting the gate of Iker Casillas. But the success of the red-green is over. In the remaining time, the hosts twice upset Guilherme and almost deprived the Moscow club of the chances of reaching the playoffs of the Champions League.
Finally, they crossed out “Schalke-04”, who in his field had figured out Galatasaray and pulled away from Lokomotiv by eight points. Gelsenkirhentsy opened the account already in the fourth minute, and at the end of an hour the game established the final result of the meeting. The main hero was Guido Burgstaller, who first distinguished himself, and after assisting Mark Utu.
Thus, Lokomotiv lagged behind the second-placed Schalke by eight points and lost the chance to continue the struggle. Now the team Semin remains to compete for access to the Europa League. To do this, the club must win in the two remaining meetings and hope that Galatasaray will not be able to cope with Porto.