Good day, everyone, and welcome to my blog. It's been a while since I made a football post, and I kind of miss doing it, so today, this will be my first football post in 23 days. So, for the past 18 hours, I have been filled with joy with the performance of FC Barcelona in the Champions League last night. The Champions League quarter-final first leg kicked off on Tuesday night with Manchester City vs. Real Madrid and Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich kicking off the UCL week.
There was a lot of anticipation when the Champions League draw happened some weeks ago, and all of the four fixtures placed were incredible, especially Real Madrid vs. Manchester and Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich. These games both ended in a draw as I predicted three days ago, but I didn't drop a post about it. Real Madrid got lucky against Manchester City because, with City's busy schedule last week, they were still able to put up a fight against Real Madrid, who had a week to prepare for the game.
The return leg will be played in the Etihad Stadium next week and to tell you the truth Real Madrid has no chance of beating Manchester City at home, yes Madrid is known for their comebacks and just needs a little chance to make a huge difference but this time it's not going to work against Manchester City in the Etihad stadium. Next week we will see what happens we they meet for the second leg of the quarter-final.
Arsenal did incrediblely to hold their own against Bayern Munich, but they could not struggle a win at home. The second leg will be played at Bayern Munich's home stadium. It is going to be interesting to see who goes through the next round next week. The Champions League continued last night as PSG went head-to-head against Barcelona at the Parc des Princes stadium. It was an incredible game that had everything from incredible goals scored, to comebacks, and intensity.
Before the start of the game, there was a lot of noise about how Mbappe would smoke Barcelona. I know Mbappe is a fantastic player but they could not even give Barcelona's defence the benefit of the doubt and what happened last night, Mbappe got locked by Kounde who surprisingly did an incredible job at the backline yesterday. Mbappe was unable to take a shot or create any good chances yesterday and had to pass the ball back to his teammates because Kounde was not letting him get past him throughout the 90th minute.
Barcelona first scored the first goal of the match in the 37th minute of the first half. Raphinha stepped up and played the rebound ball into the goalpost to give Barcelona the lead. After the goal, Barcelona controlled the game, making it hard for PSG to get the ball to make any dangerous counterattacks. PSG responded in the second half by levelling the scoreline in the 48th minute.
Dembele played a stunning shot into the goalpost, leaving Ter Stegen mute at the goalpost, but the way Dembele celebrated the goal was annoying when he knew full well he scored against his former club. Dembele should expect to get the Luis Figo treatment when he comes to the Montjuic stadium next week for the return leg. PSG scored their second goal in the 51st minute of the second half.
Vitinha picked up a nice through pass by Ruiz, who is a surprisingly good player. Now I see why PSG went after him in the January window. Vitinha received the and played a low shot to the bottom left corner, beating Ter Stegen, who had no chance of stopping the ball. It looked like everything had gone south for Barcelona but then Xavi decided to sub in Pedri and it did not take more than one minute before Pedri provided an assist to Raphinha who scored his second goal of the game in the 62nd minute.
Xavi made a change again and subbed for Andres Christensen. It did not take two minutes, and Christensen scored the third goal for Barcelona. It was the perfect win for the Danish footballer on his birthday. Barcelona walked out of the Parc des Princes with a win, now Xavi and the boys need to finish the job at the Montjuic stadium next week. The players deserve applause, especially Raphinha, who stepped up when the team needed a goal. It is nice seeing the team win and hopefully next week they finish the job. So, guys, that will be all for now. Thanks for stopping by and have a good day.
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