Europe’s top club competition resumed on Friday after an unusually long break was necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak. The remaining matches in the round-of-16 is to be completed before the 8 qualifying teams travel to Lisbon for the remainder of the competition.
Juventus took on Lyon in Turin. Elsewhere, Manchester City faced real Madrid at the Etihad.
Juventus had lost by a goal to nil in the first leg of the round in France. To progress, the Ronaldo-inspired Old Ladies needed to score at least twice. They did but that was still not enough!
Cristiano Ronaldo, the most prolific goal scorer in the competition’s history, was on target twice for the home side. The first was from the penalty spot in the first half. The second was a long ranger in the second half.
Ronaldo’s heroic came in late as Memphis Depay had given the visitors an early lead from the spot kick.
The visitors early goal proved too much of a hill to climb, leading to the eventual exit of the Bianconeri on away goal rule.
The story in England, precisely Manchester, was a bit straightforward. Manchester City on the other hand effectively kicked off the challenge of Zidane’s Real Madrid.
Having lost 2-1 in Madrid, Spain, Los Blancos needed a bit of a miracle to overcome Pep Guardiola’s in-form men in their own backyard.
Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus goals were on both ends of a Karim Banzema first half equalizer to give the host a 4-2 aggregate win and a place in the last 8.
Up Next
The remainder of the round of 16 comes off on Saturday night with Barcelona taking on Napoli at the Camp Nou. The first leg ended one-all in Italy.
This means Barca are in the rather uncomfortable driving seat as the need to keep a clean sheet to emerge victorious. Napoli on the other hand need to score to have any chance of qualifying.
Elsewhere, Chelsea face off the toughest challenge so far. Having lost by 3-0 margin at home, they’ll need to score 4 unanswered goals in the Allianz Arena to qualify. Nothing is impossible in football. However, that looks fairly impossible.
