The roster of teams for the semi-final stage of the UEFA Champions League is now complete following Manchester City and Real Madrid’s qualification on Wednesday night.
Unlike Tuesday’s games where the home teams had huge advantages going into the second leg quarter-final games, the ties for Wednesday appeared evenly poised.
For the tie at Anfield, Liverpool had lost the first leg 3-1 in Spain and thus needed a minimum of a 2-0 win over Real Madrid to edge out the reigning La Liga champions, but Jurgen Klopp’s men failed to get the needed result-being made to settle for a barren draw.
Zinedine Zidane‘s men benefitted a great deal from the fact that Anfield was without its fearsome atmosphere like it was when the Reds were in an even more precarious situation when they came back from a 3-0 deficit to shock Barcelona 4-0 in 2019.
That nonetheless, Klopp’s men threatened their opponents on a number of occasions as Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had a busy day and was drawn into two excellent saves from Mohamed Salah and James Milner respectively in the first 15 minutes. Georginio Wijnaldum also came close before the half-time whistle.
Expectedly, it was not Liverpool all the way as Madrid also had their own moments especially when Karim Benzema struck the post in the 20th minute.
Though chances were created at Anfield, both sides failed to hit the target but Real Madrid were the happier at the end as they progressed with a 3-1 aggregate scoreline.
In the other tie on Wednesday, Pep Guardiola’s dream for a first Champions League triumph with Manchester City remains after the Cityzens completed a double over Borussia Dortmund.
Having won the first leg 2-1, City could be edged out with a 1-0 Dortmund win and that was the case 15 minutes into the game when Jude Bellingham shot Dortmund into the lead.
City however turned things round in the second half with Riyad Marhrez scoring from the penalty spot before Phil Foden sealed victory in the 75th minute off a mistake from Marwin Hitz.
City will face PSG, Bayern Munich’s conquerors, in the semi-final while Real Madrid continue their chase of a 14th UCL title against another English team in Chelsea.
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