LONDON: Arsenal reached the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since 2010 after beating Porto 4-2 in a penalty shootout on Tuesday, ending a streak of seven eliminations in the round of 16.
David Raya saved Galeno’s spot kick to seal the win for Arsenal, which had won the game 1-0 to level the aggregate score at 1-1.
Wendell also missed his penalty for Porto, hitting the post with his team’s second attempt at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal trailed 1-0 from the first leg in Portugal — when Galeno scored the winner deep into stoppage time — but went level through Leandro Trossard’s 41st-minute goal. Neither side could find another goal despite extra time as Porto’s disciplined defensive tactics largely held Arsenal at bay.
Arsenal had been eliminated at this stage seven years in a row under Arsene Wenger between 2011-17, the last time the London club played in the competition.
Arsenal beat Porto on penalties to reach Champions League quarterfinals
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Arsenal beat Porto on penalties to reach Champions League quarterfinals
Diaz earns Real Madrid lead on Atletico in Champions League derby clash
- Atletico began to create danger of their own and Valverde hacked away Giuliano Simeone’s whipped ball from under his own crossbar under pressure from Samuel Lino
MADRID: Real Madrid claimed a small edge on city rivals Atletico Madrid with a tight 2-1 Champions League last 16 first-leg win on Tuesday.
Julian Alvarez levelled for Atletico after Rodrygo Goes sent the hosts ahead, but Brahim Diaz stroked home the winner for the record 15-time winners to delight the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
Diego Simeone’s Atletico, who lost in the 2014 and 2016 finals against their bitter rivals, kept stars Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe quiet but still came up short.
The Rojiblancos played it safe in the final stages, seeming to accept their one-goal disadvantage for the second leg derby clash at home next week.
Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti opted for Morocco international Diaz in midfield to replace the suspended Jude Bellingham and selected Fede Valverde at right-back after he was passed fit to play.
The Italian had demanded his side show a better attitude and more commitment than during their La Liga defeat by Real Betis on Saturday and his charges delivered.
Rodrygo pounced after just four minutes, slipping inside Javi Galan to collect Valverde’s teasing pass before firing home with his left foot across Jan Oblak and inside the far post.
It was the Brazilian winger’s fifth strike of the tournament, habitually shining on the European stage for Madrid, where he boasts 25 goals in 61 appearances.
Rodrygo wanted a penalty when Galan appeared to hold him back in the area but his appeals were waved away.
His compatriot Vinicius came close to netting Madrid’s second as he surged into the box but Jose Gimenez blocked his shot well.
Atletico began to create danger of their own and Valverde hacked away Giuliano Simeone’s whipped ball from under his own crossbar under pressure from Samuel Lino.
Alvarez levelled with a brilliant individual goal, dancing away from Eduardo Camavinga on the left of the box and curling his shot past Thibaut Courtois into the top corner.
The former Manchester City striker has been in sublime form in the past few weeks, notching 10 goals in 14 matches and proving why Atletico made him their second most expensive signing of all-time last summer.
Antoine Griezmann and Rodrigo De Paul helped Atletico keep control for long periods, with Madrid finding it hard to take the ball back from their rivals.
That made it all the more surprising when Diaz restored Los Blancos’ lead in the 55th minute.
The midfielder left Gimenez on the floor with some quick footwork and carved out the space for a tidy low finish, before leaping into the crowd to celebrate.
Griezmann fired wide and Gimenez over as Atletico looked for a response and Ancelotti brought on 39-year-old midfielder Luka Modric in search of more control.
The Croatian delivered just that and neither side threatened in the final half hour of the match until stoppage time, when Madrid might have secured a third.
Mbappe’s cut-back from the right was behind Vinicius who was waiting for a tap-in, and Oblak saved from Modric in the aftermath.
Atletico host Real Madrid next week at the Metropolitano stadium, with the winner facing Arsenal or PSV Eindhoven in the quarter-finals.
Rashford returns to Champions League in Aston Villa’s 3-1 win at Club Brugge
- Rashford did not score his first goal with his new team but put on a strong first-half display
- Rashford was replaced by Marco Asensio in the 64th minute
BRUGGE: Marcus Rashford resumed his Champions League career Tuesday, starting in Aston Villa’s 3-1 win at Club Brugge in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
Rashford did not score his first goal with his new team but put on a strong first-half display, making himself available and showing his pace and great technique on the wing.
After Leon Bailey put Villa ahead, Rashford had an excellent chance to double Villa’s lead on the break in the 10th minute from a tight angle, but his effort was blocked by goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
Rashford was replaced by Marco Asensio in the 64th minute.
It was Rashford’s first Champions League match since November 2023, when he was sent off for Manchester United against FC Copenhagen.
Rashford joined Villa in February on loan from United, where he had fallen out with manager Ruben Amorim. He had not played for United since Dec. 12 amid Amorim’s concerns about Rashford’s commitment to training.
The 27-year-old forward’s loan runs to the end of the season.
Rashford has been in great from since his departure from Old Trafford. Although he has yet to score for his new team, he has been influential and set up three goals for Asensio.
According to UEFA statistics, Rashford played 33 Champions League games for United, scoring 12 goals.
Villa were a league-phase surprise, finishing eighth to set up the round-of-16 matchup against a Club Brugge squad that defeated Villa 1-0 in November and eliminated Atalanta in the playoffs.
PSG coach Enrique warns his players about Liverpool’s ‘fighter jets’ in attack
- Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career with 30 goals in 39 games, and is well supported by Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo in attack
PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique is worried about the speed of Liverpool’s “fighter jets” in attack and warned his team not to give the ball away in their Champions League clash.
PSG host six-time champion Liverpool in the first leg of the round of 16 at Parc des Princes on Wednesday.
“Liverpool has one of the best counter attacks in Europe so we will try to keep the ball and be careful not to suffer too much from transitions,” Enrique said Tuesday at a pre-match news conference. “They have three fighter jets in attack and it’s not easy to stop these fighter jets.”
Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career with 30 goals in 39 games, and is well supported by Luis Díaz and Cody Gakpo in attack.
“We are facing the team that has played the best football in the group stage. They were the most consistent side,” Enrique said. “Arne Slot has done a great job. He has created a near-perfect team, which knows how to defend, knows how to press, which can attack either by holding the ball or accelerating.”
In a rare admission, Enrique conceded that Liverpool may have the slight edge.
“Liverpool is also able to create danger without the ball, maybe they don’t need it as much we do,” he said. “To impose ourselves we generally need to keep the ball.”
However, PSG are on a 22-game unbeaten run since a 1-0 loss at Bayern Munich in late November. PSG have won their past 10 matches with an eye-watering 40 goals scored in a successfully re-shaped attack since Kylian Mbappe’s departure to Real Madrid.
“The advantage of our forward is that they can play in every position,” said Enrique, whose clever positional switch has allowed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola to play alongside Ousmane Dembele in attack.
PSG have much better teamwork in the post-Mbappe era, with Dembele scoring a career-best 26 goals in 33 games. The speedy 19-year-old forward Desire Doue and sharpshooter Gonçalo Ramos provide a threat from the bench. Enrique hopes Liverpool’s players will be rattled in Paris.
“It’s difficult for our opponents to play at Parc des Princes with the pressure,” he said. “The atmosphere is extraordinary and I hope we can profit from it.”
However, Liverpool’s Anfield stadium is one of the toughest places for a return leg, as Lionel Messi’s Barcelona found out in the 2019 semifinals, losing 4-0 after winning 3-0 at home.
Both sides are dominating their respective leagues.
Unbeaten PSG are coasting toward a record-extending 13th French title.
Liverpool are closing in on a record-equaling 20th Premier League title, while a seventh Champions League crown would move them level with AC Milan in second place outright.
PSG lost the only Champions League final in their history 1-0 to Bayern in 2020 in the Coronavirus-shortened campaign.
Swiss prosecutors seek suspended sentences for Blatter and Platini
- An Extraordinary Appeal Court sitting in Muttenz near Basel, will hand down its decision on March 25 in a long-running legal saga
- Prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand opted not to call for prison sentences for the 88-year-old Swiss and 69-year-old Frenchman
MUTTENZ, Switzerland: The Swiss public prosecutor on Tuesday requested suspended sentences of 20 months for both Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini in an appeal against their 2022 acquittal in a corruption case.
An Extraordinary Appeal Court sitting in Muttenz near Basel, will hand down its decision on March 25 in a long-running legal saga which shattered the careers of Blatter, the former president of world football’s governing body FIFA, and Platini, ex-head of European body UEFA.
Prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand opted not to call for prison sentences for the 88-year-old Swiss and 69-year-old Frenchman.
The case began in 2015 when Blatter quit as head of FIFA in a corruption crisis. It stems from a delayed payment of two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) FIFA paid Platini in 2011 for consultancy services.
The pair were acquitted by the Swiss Federal Court in June 2022 of charges that included “disloyal management,” “breach of trust” and “forgery of securities.”
The court concluded that fraud was “not established with a likelihood bordering on certainty,” and therefore applied the general principle of criminal law according to which “the doubt must benefit the accused.”
The Swiss Attorney General’s office appealed.
In his three-and-a-half-hour argument on Tuesday, Hildbrand set out to dispel the defendants’ assertion that they had an “oral contract” to pay Platini in 2011 for work as a consultant between 1998 and 2002.
In 2011, Platini opted not to run against Blatter, who was then reelected as FIFA president.
Blatter and Platini had signed a written agreement in August 1999, before the Frenchman became UEFA president, providing for an annual payment by FIFA of 300,000 Swiss francs for consultancy work.
At the beginning of 2011, Platini presented an invoice for 2 million Swiss francs. Blatter approved it and presented it to FIFA as a late salary balance.
The defendants say they had agreed a yearly sum of one million Swiss francs but that this was too much for FIFA finances at the time.
Hildbrand said the argument was implausible. Even if FIFA had transferred one million Swiss francs to Platini in 1999, it would still have had “more than 21 million francs in cash,” and its reserves had reached 328 million in 2002.
To agree such a sum without a written record, without witnesses and without ever making provision for it in the accounts was, he said, “contrary to commercial practice” as well as to FIFA’s norms.
The appeal trial, which began on Monday, is due to continue until Thursday at the latest, with closing arguments from the defense.
Although FIFA, the civil party, has joined the public prosecutor’s appeal, it is not represented in Muttenz.
Bayern coach ‘not in the mood’ for question about Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz
- “I’m talking but it’s easier to say nothing. I’m trying to be respectful, but guys, other questions!” Kompany said
- Wirtz has been consistently linked with a move to Bayern
MUNICH: Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany gave up trying to answer a question about what makes Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz special.
Ahead of the teams meeting in the Champions League on Wednesday, Kompany was asked what sets Wirtz and Bayern star Jamal Musiala apart and what they could learn from each other.
“You’ve obviously noticed I’m not in the mood to answer,” Kompany said Tuesday.
“From each other, I don’t know,” Kompany attempted at first before saying each player has to take his own path in his development.
He said it was a boon for Germany, before saying his players will need be at their best to counter Leverkusen in Munich.
Then he gave up.
“I’m talking but it’s easier to say nothing. I’m trying to be respectful, but guys, other questions!” Kompany said in the press conference before the first leg of the teams’ last 16 tie.
“It’s a good question,” he continued. “I would perhaps have asked it in your position, but still, perhaps you’d feel the same if you were sitting in my seat.”
Wirtz has been consistently linked with a move to Bayern, the speculation fueled by comments from Bayern powerbroker Uli Hoeneß saying he would like to see the 21-year-old attacking midfielder play for the Bavarian powerhouse one day.
Kompany said midfielder Aleksandar Pavlović was sick and will miss the game.
Bayern haven’t beaten Leverkusen in three attempts so far this season. The teams most recently drew 0-0 in Leverkusen in the Bundesliga — a game the home team dominated from start to finish. Leverkusen previously knocked Bayern out of the German Cup, while they drew their first meeting 1-1 in Munich, where Bayern had been better.
Bayern have failed to beat Leverkusen in all six games they’ve played since their former player Xabi Alonso took over as Leverkusen coach in October 2022.
