The second night of the second leg of the quarter finals saw Manchester City and Liverpool maintain their aggregate leads against Atletico Madrid and Benfica respectively.
Manchester City v Atletico Madrid
Aggregate result going into the game: Manchester City 1-0 Atletico Madrid
Manchester City went to Spain in the hope they could maintain their advantage over Atletico, and be one step closer to reaching the final as they did a year ago.
City dominated the first half of the game, but they still couldn’t make that breakthrough although they had several chances. The second half of the game was briefly dominated by the home side, but Pep Guardiola’s side soon found their form again and it looked as if Atletico had no chance of possibly scoring.
The game ended with the same aggregate result as it came into the game with, but City getting into the semifinals again was not the big topic of conversation as it should have. Felipe got sent off for Atletico after a foul on Phil Foden, and then Savic grabbed Foden, resulting in a big clash between the sides, during which Savic pulled the hair of City’s £100m signing Jack Grealish, who looked to called him a c**t. This amused fans on Twitter, one of whom said the England international repaid the fee City paid for him last summer.
John Stones received the Player of the Match, very well deserved given his composure during the confrontation. The fallout from that rolled over into when everybody was returning to the dressing rooms after the game, with Atletico players winding up Grealish in particular. Stones once again composed himself very well and carried on walking, a move which could make a very good case for him to become captain once Fernandinho leaves at the end of the season.
Final aggregate result: Manchester City 1-0 Atletico Madrid
Liverpool v Benfica
Aggregate result going into the game: Liverpool 3-1 Benfica
While the City game was talked about for all the wrong reasons, the Liverpool game was talked about for all the right ones.
Ibrahima Konaté opened the scoring for the home side, making it look as if Liverpool were going to repeat the feat they achieved last week. This looked increasingly likely as the Reds went 2-1 (Ramos had scored for the Portuguese side to make things level in the game) up after a brilliant goal from Roberto Firmino, who scored again to make it 3-1 for Jürgen Klopp’s side.
But Benfica we’re not going down without a fight. They managed to make it 3-3 following goals from Roman Yaremchuk and Premier League transfer target Darwin Núñez, both of which were initially disallowed for offside before going to VAR. Liverpool could’ve made it 4-3 on the night after a goal from Sadio Mané but that was ruled offside and they didn’t go to VAR.
So, although it ended in a draw on the night at Anfield, Liverpool – with their win in Portugal last week – were victorious, resulting in a very happy Jürgen Klopp.
Final aggregate result: Liverpool 6-4 Benfica
What happens next?
Liverpool will face Villarreal in the semifinal, while Manchester City will be hoping to do what Chelsea couldn’t do, and eliminate Real Madrid.
The victorious sides from the games on Night 2 face each other again on Saturday in the FA Cup semifinal, but City could be at a slight disadvantage, as both Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker came off the game with injuries.
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