Tottenham were up 3-0 on Dortmund after the 1st leg. They won the 2nd leg 1-0 behind this Harry Kane goal. He doesn’t miss those. Dortmund need to figure out their defense quickly if they want to win the Bundesliga. They are beating Bayern on just goal difference after being up in 1st for pretty much the entire season. Dortmund have gone from the hottest team in Europe to possibly no trophies this season. Wild. Tottenham barely made it out of the group, but now they seem to be rolling in this tournament.
Ajax played better than Real Madrid in the 1st leg, which I wrote about previously; however, they did not get the result they needed losing 2-1 at home. Allowing Real Madrid to get 2 away goals made many think they dug themselves too deep of a hole against the 3 time defending champs. Ramos couldn’t play because of a card suspension and Ronaldo is in Italy. Ajax didn’t care.
Ajax won the game 4-1 behind Tadic, Ziyech, Neres, and all their youngsters. Tadic’s 2 assists were simply sublime. Assist 1. Assist 2. Oh yeah, and then he scored his own. Varane missed an easy early header that hit the post and before you know it Ajax were up 2-0. Lucas and Junior Vinicius had to be subbed off early due to injury, which spelled doom for Real Madrid. Real Madrid pays more for Gareth Bale than Ajax does for their entire first team squad… and reserves… and youth team combined. Unreal stuff from the great young Dutch team.
Schone’s silly good free kick was just icing on the cake for Ajax and their fans.
Porto were down 2-1 after the 1st leg against Roma, but they won the second leg at home 3-1 in overtime to move on. This was the “weakest” matchup at this stage, but Porto has enough attacking options to cause some trouble in the next round. Pepe and Dzeko had this comically cute moment. I like Dzeko, but that is embarrassing.
Manchester United lost to PSG 2-0 at Old Trafford and the comeback in Paris seemed insurmountable with no Darmian, Herrera, Jones, Lingard, Martial, Mata, Matic, Pogba, Sanchez, or Valencia. Manchester United started a midfield of Fred, McTominay, and Young and beat PSG 3-1 to advance. Rashford and Lukaku outplayed Mbappe and Di Maria. I do feel a little bad for Di Maria going out against his former club here. He did not have a good time in Manchester (house got robbed, wife was unhappy), but United fans really seem to dislike him too much IMO. I am United fan simply because Ibra played for them… But Ole Gunnar Solskjær is making me more and more of a fan by the day.
How the hell was Mourinho’s United not scoring goals in bunches with Rashford, Pogba, and Lukaku? Lukaku scored the first goal with great pace and betting finishing. You could tell PSG were nervous after that.. Lukaku then scored a second on Buffon’s poor goalkeeping. It is almost like Buffon doesn’t want to win this competition. Fitting that PSG signed him really. Finally, United were awarded a penalty for this, which Rashford put home. Absolutely amazing week of Champions League football. Until next week…
92-78-9Â on Soccer in 2018Â up 8.17 units
32-26-6Â on Soccer in 2019Â down 0.41Â units