This week, the Champions League gave its fans four impressive matches. While "Real" and "Roma" achieved important victories, they will still have to work hard for their spot in the next stage. Meanwhile, PSG and London's "Tottenham Hotspur" already seem to be looking towards the quarterfinals. Unearned defeat for "Ajax"? The introduction of the video assistant referee system in the Champions League came at the most inappropriate time – that can be said about the match between Amsterdam's "Ajax" and defending champion Madrid's "Real". The system, which only saw the light of day in this tournament just this week, was quickly utilized by the fans. Nicolas Tagliafico's header after Lasse Schone's corner maneuver bypassed Thibous Courtois and found his teammate Dusan Tadic in front of the Belgian goalkeeper. After reviewing the footage, referee Damir Skomina ultimately decided that the Serbian was offside and, although he did not touch the ball, he interfered with the "Real" goalkeeper, resulting in the correct decision by the Slovenian referee. However, without VAR, the home team would most likely have advanced. The visitors were the first to score. After an hour of play, a powerful strike by Vinicius led the Madrid team to almost the entire field, receiving a timely pass and shooting past the goalkeeper by Karim Benzema. The hosts certainly deserved the equalizing goal. The "Ajax" offensive machine directed a total of 18 shots during the match, but only 6 of them were on target, with Hakim Ziyech scoring the crucial goal. Despite the efforts of the home team, the Madrid club did what they do best in this tournament – win. In the final minutes of the match, in the 87th minute, substitute Marco Asensio sealed the victory. This result is another breath of fresh air for the Spanish club, which seemed to be heading for a terrible season at the start. After three consecutive triumphs in the most prestigious European club football tournament, the departure of leader Cristiano Ronaldo, the handing over of the team's reins to Julen Lopetegui, and one defeat following another, it seems that another "Real" savior, Santiago Solari, has finally found common ground with the players.
And the coach has not stopped making changes – in the final ten minutes of the match, five important goals were scored by substitutes who came off the bench: M. Asensio, Gareth Bale (2 goals), Mariano, and Dani Ceballos, with 9 goals scored after the 75th minute. And that's not all – when the coach can have players like Isco and Marcelo on the bench, it says a lot about the team's squad. Although in the return match in Amsterdam, Sergio Ramos will not receive a yellow card intentionally, they will not be able to replace him. Such a result in Amsterdam is truly bad news for "Ajax". They now need to win by a two-goal margin, which will be extremely difficult in Madrid lately – the home walls have been solid, and their last defeat at the "Santiago Bernabeu" stadium was at the beginning of January, when the team that led 2-0 capitulated in the last half-hour against San Sebastiano's "Real Sociedad". However, after reaching the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in 13 years, Eriko ten Hago's team has shown that they know how to fight, and the fact that the match in the Spanish capital will not be the final swansong for the season is particularly interesting to the goalkeeper Frenkie de Jong and captain Matthijs De Ligt, who leave the team after the season. Thus, the club which is losing some of its key players may have to wait a long time to achieve greater victories on the international stage.
M. Pochettino's magic Dortmund "Borussia's" defense seemed strong again until it completely collapsed. Immediately - in London. Without Marco Reus, Lukasz Piszczek, Paco Alcacer and Julian Weigl, Lucien Favre's team held up well in the first half, and at the end of the half, Dаn-Axel Agado forced Hugo Lloris to sweat. However, the defensive wall collapsed as soon as the second half began. "Spurs" took the ball near the visitors' goal, Jan Vertonghen lifted the ball into the penalty area, where the Korean Heung-Min Son, who had become the team's penalty taker, was waiting. This was the ninth goal scored by the Korean against the German club in 11 matches across all competitions. Although "Borussia" tried to stay in the game, the end was in favor of the London club. J. Vertonghen scored in the 83rd minute, and the situation of the visitors was further complicated when Fernando Llorente, who had been on the substitutes' bench, headed the ball into the net four minutes later. This capitulation of his team was called a gift to London club by L. Favre. Despite such talk, this victory is a wonderful result, considering that "Hotspur" have lost two important leaders - Harry Kane and Dele Alli, and Mauricio Pochettino did not receive any reinforcements in January. Moreover, managing his team with a trimmed schedule was merciless – it was the 22nd match in 81 days for the "Tottenham Hotspur". Success was achieved through the 18-year-old talent Jadon Sancho's entanglement and J. Vertonghen's successful marauding on the left side of the field. The 31-year-old Belgian, who usually plays as a center-back, not only solidified his team's defense but also appeared in attack when needed most, creating a numerical advantage when the "Borussia" defense, which had experienced increasing failures recently, was under pressure by the "black and yellow" offense.
In the German Cup at home, after a penalty shootout, the club was defeated 2-4 by Werder Bremen, despite leading multiple times. The extra time ended with a 3-3 draw, and after 90 minutes, the scoreboard showed a 1-1 result. In the last matches, despite leading 3-0 up to the 75th minute, they painfully let the victory slip from their hands to the "Hoffenheim" club – the main time ended in a 3-3 draw. Now, at home, the "Borussia" club needs to score at least three goals, but when it could be quite possible with a huge attacking potential, which was not utilized in London (only 6 shots on goal), how to keep their own goal "dry"? Especially when having lost their attacking machine, the "Hotspur" attacked the goal 15 times without scoring. Finally, "Old Trafford" falls silent PSG traveled to Manchester without much optimism. Thomas Tuchel couldn't rely on two key players - Edinson Cavani and Neymar, while the results of "Manchester United", under the guidance of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, spoke for themselves – returning as coach to the "Red Devils", the Norwegian fought for 10 wins in eleven played matches. He faced tests from "Tottenham Hotspur" and "Arsenal" on the home front, and brought the team back into the top four, which was previously struggling and showing poor results and gameplay under Jose Mourinho, who likened such a perspective to a miracle.
With the club's management entrusting their miracle to changes, they found their miracle, but the euphoria was short-lived when faced with the painful debut of the magician Ole on the European stage. Although the manager started the match with a mobile and fast attacking trio - Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial, and Marcus Rashford, who applied high pressure, the visitors quickly counterattacked, and one of their moves was stopped by the offside flag. Moreover, in the first half, Kylian Mbappe could have turned the result in favor of his team, but France's shot was saved by David De Gea. Eventually, PSG achieved their goal in the second half when Presnel Kimpembe scored in the 53rd minute after Angel Di Maria's corner kick. The Argentine also contributed to the second goal in the 60th minute with an excellent pass to the center of the penalty area, where Mbappe was perfectly positioned to score. The former Manchester United player's game style did not leave the "Red Devils" in the stands indifferent – a player raising him was "showered" with beer and water bottles. Just like A. Di Maria and K. Mbappe duo were crushing the dreams of "Manchester United" about the next stage.
Ole's task was further complicated by the first-half injuries to A. Martial and J. Lingard, and the desperation was perfectly illustrated by one of the team leaders, Paul Pogba, who was completely wrapped up in the game on Tuesday evening, receiving a second yellow card. The Frenchman made mistakes, had no chances to distribute balls, as evident in the final match summary - just one shot on goal. Experts agree that at home, the "Red Devils" simply lost to a better team, and saving themselves in Paris, where they will not have the support of the first match's most outstanding player, the P. Pogba from the first half of the season, who is now performing splendidly, makes the mission seem impossible. However, even before the game, J. Mourinho also spoke about "Manchester United" reaching the final four.
"Roma" wonderkid's show In Tuesday night's other matches, the young "Roma" striker Nicolo Zaniolo shone. The 19-year-old Italian scored twice and helped his team defeat "Porto" 2-1. Applause for such an Italian performance should also go to "Roma" coach Eusebio Di Francesco, who this season has usually pushed the midfielder to an unusual right-wing position for him. This worked perfectly with striker Edin Dzeko leading the attack. It was after a pass from the Bosnian that the first goal was scored. The second goal came when E. Dzeko's shot was saved by the post, and N. Zaniolo was the first to pounce on the loose ball. Without Jesus Corona and the injured top scorer Moussa Marega, the Portuguese team eventually softened the result - Adrian Lopez, who came off the bench in the 79th minute, scored. Although "Roma" did not show anything impressive in the first few minutes after taking the lead, as did their opponents, they have excellent chances to break through to the next CL stage. Especially when their offense is very promising - 7 shots on target, 6 on goal, while "Porto" only managed 6 shots, 2 of which were on target and another 2 were blocked.
Italian dreams of a successful European season are also enhanced by the fact that E. Di Francesco truly knows what he is doing - last season, he caused a sensation by guiding "Roma" out of the group of death and advancing to the semifinals, where they could have caused trouble for "Liverpool" that reached the final.
A.Šarkūnas, lrt.lt
