After covering four leagues over the weekend, the Champions League quarterfinals feels like a working vacation. I feel like I'm posting these from some pool chair with a mai tai in hand. Here’s what we learned from the first leg of the last eight in this competition.
Champions League winners from the first leg of the quarterfinals
Declan Rice
Those two free-kick goals against Real Madrid were works of art, and they helped give Arsenal a romp over Real Madrid that qualifies as one of the greatest European nights in the Gunners’ history. In an earlier era, Rice’s free kicks would have been what VCRs were made for, but now, they repay careful study on YouTube.
Thomas Müller
It was so very nearly a storybook finish for the man who is leaving Bayern Munich after this season. The German attacker came off the bench and then did what he always does, quietly slipping his marker and tapping Konrad Laimer’s cross into Inter’s net for an equalizer. After scoring more than 250 goals for his club, he will be sorely missed by the Bayern faithful.
Davide Frattesi
Then again, Müller’s fairytale ending was at least postponed because Inter found a winner in the 88th minute. On an odd-man rush started by Nicolò Barella, Brazilian left-winger Carlos Augusto might have shot the ball himself but instead centered it for an onrushing Frattesi, and the young box-to-box midfielder provided a striker’s finish for the greatest moment of his still-nascent career.
Thibaut Courtois
He is there to stop the shots, but if he hadn’t been spectacular in Real Madrid’s net, los merengues probably would have lost even worse than they did. The Belgian keeper took the responsibility for failing to stop Rice’s free kicks, but he gets a spot here.
Róbert Lewandowski
His hat trick against his former club likely consigned Dortmund to exiting the CL at this stage. The goals he scored were all in Lewandowski fashion, simple finishes off his teammates’ passes and a rebound off the frame of the goal.
Champions League losers from the first leg of the quarterfinals
Borussia Dortmund
They came into the Nou Camp with recent wins over Freiburg and Mainz, and so some of their backers figured they had a prayer against mighty Barcelona. No such luck. The 4-0 loss leaves them dead in the water as they head back to Germany.
Ezri Konsa
The defender got embarrassed twice in Aston Villa’s loss to PSG. First he got turned the wrong way on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s breathtaking Cruyff turn that led to his goal, then he overshot Nuno Mendes on the stoppage-time goal that gives the Parisians a huge edge going to Villa Park. These things can happen when you’re facing some of the world’s best attackers, but the England defender will have to stand taller if Villa are to overturn PSG’s two-goal lead.
Real Madrid
Even Real’s Champions League magic might not be enough to make up a three-goal deficit at the Bernabéu. Worryingly, their world-beating offense never really tested David Raya in Arsenal’s goal, and the off days by Mbappé, Vinícius, and Bellingham may just doom them.
Bayern Munich
Another Champions League giant finds themselves behind the eight ball in their quarterfinal tie, and if Bayern only need to overturn a one-goal lead, they’ll have to do so at San Siro.