The winners of the last two editions of the C1 qualified on Wednesday for the quarter-finals. Real Madrid suffered but eliminated RB Leipzig (1-1), while Manchester City beat FC Copenhagen (3-1).
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Rarely have Real Madrid been so booed by their audience at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium on the evening of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Well launched after their victory in the first match on the pitch of RB Leipzig (1-0), the Madrid players suffered enormously on the return, Wednesday March 6, but were able to take a breather at the end of the match (1-1 ). In the double confrontation, Real can be happy to come away with only one goal conceded and no red cards.
As in the first leg, RB Leipzig hit a lot of goals (20 shots), dominated the match, but above all scored a lot (4 on target against 3). Two weeks ago, Andriy Lunin had a great match. On Wednesday evening, it was the German attackers, like the big ones, who wasted their opportunities: Loïs Openda was particularly clumsy (13th, 16th, 42nd), Benjamin Sesko was not sharp enough (74th) and Dani Olmo found the crossbar (90th+2).
Finally, Leipzig had to wait for Real to score to score a goal in this double confrontation: it was captain Willi Orban who equalized (68th), three minutes after Vinicius opened the scoring (65th), which kept the German club alive. Leipzig may feel aggrieved, Real’s Brazilian striker could have not been on the field at this time of the match. He came very close to being excluded for a bad gesture on Orban a few minutes earlier (54th).
Nervous, the Madrilenians made a series of anti-play errors, revealing a lack of control. Over the two meetings, Leipzig showed more things, but was sorely lacking in success. The Madrid collective withstood the shock, helped by the talent of Brahim Diaz – author of a magnificent goal as a soloist on the first leg – and Jude Bellingham, a brilliant decisive passer for Vinicius on the return leg. For the fourth year in a row, Real reached the quarter-finals of the C1.
Manchester City wins quietly
The Cityzens, for their part, did not tremble as much as the Madrilenians. Confident after the victory in the first leg (3-1), Pep Guardiola was able to rotate his starting lineup, which did not prevent his players from obtaining the same result against Copenhagen (3-1) at the Etihad Stadium. Nathan Aké (5th), then Julian Alvarez (9th), helped by a big mistake from goalkeeper Kamil Grabara, quickly gave the English club a two-goal advantage.
The title holders confirmed their strengths, with the sixth goal from Erling Haaland (45th + 3), who joins Kylian Mbappé and Harry Kane at the top of the scorers’ ranking, in the competition. They also confirmed their weaknesses, with this bad habit of conceding a goal as soon as their opponent scored his first shot in the match: what happened with the goal of Mohamed Elyounoussi (29th), and it is already the sixteenth time this season – out of 43 games played – that City are being fooled in this way.
This small flaw did not, however, prevent Manchester City from winning 16 of their last 17 matches in all competitions. The English club won their eighth victory in eight matches in the competition this season on Wednesday in front of their home crowd. It is the only team to have achieved this flawless performance. The club led by Guardiola will once again be the team to avoid in the quarter-final draw on Friday March 15.