There will be three Spanish teams in the quarter finals once again after Barcelona knocked out Manchester City on Wednesday evening! The only goal came on the half hour mark when Rakitic controlled Messi’s long pass before lifting a shot over Joe Hart, making it 3-1 on aggregate to Luis Enrique’s side. Before that though Neymar had fired a shot against the post and Messi had drilled a couple of free kicks over the top, and before the half time whistle Luis Suárez struck the upright again. Touré Yaya and Aguero went close either side of half time, but Barça continued to attack, Joe Hart pulling off a string of top class saves from all and sundry, including Messi, Iniesta, Jordi Alba, Neymar and Luis Suárez. The Premier League side had a chance to get back in the tie though when Piqué and Mascherano brought down Aguero in the area with a quarter of an hour to go, but Ter Stegen guessed correctly and dived to save Aguero’s spot kick. A goalkeeper’s night, but for the second year in a row the Catalans had eliminated Pelegrini’s team in the first knock-out round of the competition. (18.03.15)
Atlético Madrid are in to the quarter finals after beating Bayer Leverkusen in a penalty shoot out! The German side were defending a one goal lead from the first leg, and Son Heung-Min wasted an early chance to extend the lead. However midway through the first half a corner came out to Mario Suárez, and his strike took a deflection off Toprak to wrong-foot Leno and enter the net. Mandukic, Griezmann, Arda Turan and Koke all had chances after that, but with the scores level, the game went in to extra time. Oblak (who had replaced the injured Moyá) had to save from Kiessling, and Rolfes fires a long shot wide, and Raúl García brought a good stop out of Leno at the other end, but with no more goals after that the game went to penalties. Oblak and Leno saved one each, and Raúl García and Toprak fired their shots over the bar, but Fernando Torres converted Atleti’s fifth and final spot kick, and Kiessling struck his penalty over the crossbar to take Simeone’s team through. (17.03.15)