Last updated on November 22, 2022
Soccer fans around the world were thrilled for this week’s key matchups in the Champions League. This week, Zidane’s Madrid took on Tuchel’s Chelsea, followed by Pep’s Manchester City taking on Pochettino’s PSG. Considering this is the first leg of the semi-finals, the games were intense and played with one goal in mind: to win.
Madrid took on English Premier League giant Chelsea in a stadium owned by Real Madrid in Spain. Real Madrid was playing, and have been playing, without their star defender, Sergio Ramos, which made the game even more intense. The game was very close. No team was completely dominating the other. Chelsea got an early lead thanks to American attacker Christian Pulisic, who dribbled around the goalkeeper and put the ball over the defenders’ heads. This marked one away goal for Chelsea, which is always helpful to get in the first leg. However, the lead didn’t last long, as Madrid’s prolific French attacker, Karim Benzema, put one in the back of the net at minute 29 off of a corner kick. After 3 consecutive headers in the box, Benzema could catch the ball in the air with power and launch it over his head and over the keeper’s head to tie the game! The game ended in a 1-1 draw in Spain. The second leg will take place on Wednesday, the fifth of May, in the Stamford Bridge Stadium, where it will be decided which team will move on to the final. As a Real Madrid, I hope Madrid moves onto the final. However, I see that as a laborious task considering Thomas Tuchel is doing a wonderful job of managing and training the Chelsea squad. I hope Sergio Ramos is fit to pay for the next leg because it will be intense, though I believe in the current backline to hold off Chelsea from scoring a few more.
This Wednesday, the first-place team in the Premier League, Manchester City, faced off against the second-place team in Ligue 1, PSG, in the Parc des Princes stadium in France. Manchester City has been playing without a striker for a good amount of time now, which many fear, but it has worked for all this time. Pochettino has lined up a great squad which includes the prolific Brazilian Neymar, and the young superstar Kylian Mbappé. This game started off very intense. Luckily for PSG, Marquinhos scored a header goal in minute 15 to give PSG the lead. City was struggling to get a goal for the first half, and it ended up being 1-0 in the first 45 minutes. The next half, City was out for the away win. It took City roughly 19 minutes to score in the second half in minute 64. Midfielder for City, Kevin De Bruyne, launched a curved cross to the box, and it ended up going in the back of the net unexpectedly. Personally, I believe the wrong decision was made by PSG goalkeeper, Keylor Navas. He faced a tough decision of either going out to catch the ball or staying in a position to block the potential shot that John Stones would take, seeing that he would reach the cross. Navas seemingly couldn’t decide and ended up staying in place, and the cross curved into the goal, touching no one. Manchester City tied the game 1-1 away from home. Roughly seven minutes later, Manchester City was awarded a free-kick outside the 18-yard box. Algerian attacker, Riyad Mahrez, took the kick and got the ball between the wall and into the goal. City was now in the lead 2-1 in the 70th minute. The game was heating up, and PSG players were desperate for a second goal, and City was desperate to maintain the game. In minute 77, Idrissa Gueye committed a questionable tackle on Ilkay Gundogan. The tackle was reviewed, and they awarded Gueye a red card. PSG was playing with ten men and ended up losing at home 2-1. The second leg is set to take place Tuesday the 4th of May in the Etihad Stadium.
Personally, I hope Manchester City goes through because they are in dominant form, but that will be difficult seeing as Neymar and Mbappé are a world-class duo looking for the win.
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