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Back of the net: Champions League round up

Niall Clarke
Football

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By Niall Clarke

  • Manchester City draw 0-0 but advance 3-1 on aggregate against Dynamo Kiev
  • Arsenal lose 3-1 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate to Barcelona
  • Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid also advance

Manchester City are through to the Champions league quarter finals after a 3-1 aggregate win over whilst Arsenal failed to comeback against Barcelona.

The busy week of Champions League action saw a mixed bag of results for the English clubs as Manchester City joined Barcelona, Juventus, and Atletico Madrid in the last eight.

The Citizens are one of eight teams that will be in the pot when the draw takes place on Friday after PSG, Benfica, Real Madrid and Wolfsburg booked their places last week.

Arsenal on the other-hand hand saw another competition slip out of reach as they fell 5-1 on aggregate to Barcelona.

The Gunners had an uphill task of overturning a 2-0 deficit at the Camp Nou from the first leg against the defending Champions, and that advantage was extended by Barcelona when Neymar struck inside 20 minutes.

January signing Mohamed Elneny levelled the score in the night but Luis Suarez quickly re-asserted Barcelona’s superiority to make it 2-1. Lionel Messi. The Spaniard’s saw the match out to ease into the last eight.

Once again Arsenal have fallen short in the Champions League round of 16, albeit against much superior opposition. With the FA Cup exit at the weekend and the Premier League slipping away with every Leicester win, the chances of the Gunners lifting a trophy are all but diminished. Is it time for a change in management at the Emirates?

City played out a rather lifeless 0-0 draw at home to Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday to seal a 3-1 aggregate win, but the victory was overshadowed by yet another injury to Captain Vincent Kompany. The defender went off with a calf problem in the first half after only just making his return to action. Nicolas Otamendi was also injured during the match.

The Premier League side are looking better in Europe after struggling in recent years, and may fancy their chances of going deep into the competition with a good draw. City will certainly fancy their chances against Benfica or Wolfsburg in the last eight but they would be keen to avoid the Spanish sides and PSG.

The match of the round came at the Allianz Arena as Bayern Munich came from 2-0 down to defeat Juventus 4-2 after extra time. Paul Pogba capitalised on a defensive mistake to put the Italian’s ahead after five minutes. Juan Cuadrado finished off a fine move to double the lead before the break as the Bayern faithful looked on in shock.

Robert Lewandowski got one back to set up a nervy final 20 minutes as the Old Lady looked to hang on to their narrow advantage. But Bayern kept pressing and Tomas Muller equalised bang on 90 minutes to force extra time.

The German’s took charge of extra time and substitute Thiago struck just minutes into the second half to send Bayern into the lead for the first time on the night. Kingsley Coman, on loan from Juventus, added a fourth two minutes later to send Bayern into the quarter finals.

Atletico Madrid and PSV Eindhoven played out another 0-0 draw at the Vincente Calderon to take their tie to a penalty shootout. In a tense shootout, Juanfran scored the decisive effort to send Diego Simeone’s side into the next round.

Thursday will see the Europa League return as Manchester United look to overturn a 2-0 deficit against Liverpool. Tottenham Hotspur have a mountainous task of coming from 3-0 down against Borussia Dortmund.