A big step for him Liverpool and a small one for him Manchester City. Jürgen Klopp’s and Pep Guardiola’s sides struck first in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday. The Nets looked dominant against Benfica; while the Citizens offered a flat match against the Atletico Madrid.
Benfica 1 – 3 Liverpool
With goals from Ibrahima Konaté, Sadio Mané and Luis Díaz, Liverpool won in Lisbon 3-1 benficawhich he only managed to discount with a goal from Darwin Núñez, so that Jürgen Klopp’s squad took a step towards the semifinals.
With his goal in this match, Mané became the second top scorer in the Liverpool on the Champions League (from the group stage to the final). With 22 goals, he surpasses former captain Steven Gerrard by one, although the Egyptian Mohamed Salah continues with 33 ahead of him. In addition, 13 of Mané’s last 19 goals in the Champions League have been scored in the round of 16.
On the other hand, data from the Twitter account @MisterChip indicated that Luis Fernando Díaz became the first Colombian player to have a goal and an assist (to Mané) in the same game of UEFA champions league from quarterfinals onwards.
In this way, the Liverpool they have won eight games in a row as visitors, five of them this season, after reaching the full in the group stage and doing the same in the first leg of the round of 16 against Inter (2-0). The English have also won seven of their last eight matches in Champions League against Portuguese clubs.
In turn, the benfica they have not won in their last nine Champions League games against English clubs (draw two and defeat seven), since a 2-0 win against Liverpool in March 2006. The Eagles have also not won any of their previous nine games in the quarterfinals of the Champions League (three draws and six losses).
Before the second leg next Wednesday, Liverpool visit on Sunday, in a decisive match for the premier leagueto Manchester City, which fulfilled in Europe defeating Atlético de Madrid 1-0.
Manchester City 1-0 Atletico Madrid
The tie was left open at the Etihad Stadium after Manchester City defeated Atlético de Madrid by the minimum. A goal from Kevin de Bruyne in the 70th minute put City ahead going into the second leg in Madrid next week, after a game in which Atlético limited the damage.
Despite the hierarchy of the clubs, we had to wait until the second half to see the game come alive. MisterChip pointed out that in this match Atlético de Madrid did not make a single shot (neither on goal nor outside) in the first half of a match for the first time in the history of the UEFA champions league. Manchester City neither generated danger in the first half.
After this result, the English team remains undefeated in the Champions League since their loss in the final last season against Chelseahowever, the door was left open against a dangerous opponent who have won two of two ties after losing the first leg away from home by a goal difference (they eliminated Bayer Leverkusen on penalties in 2015 and Barcelona in 2016).
On the other hand, Pep Guardiola increased his record of success over Diego Simeone. The coaches have crossed paths only four times after today’s encounter, with Guardiola taking victory in three games against Simeone’s one.
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