Festive of Goals in the Champions League
By Kevin Flores
The UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in April were filled with surprises. Arsenal faced Bayern Munich in North London, ending in a 2-2 draw with goals from Saka, Kane, Gnabry, and Trossard that resulted in a disappointed draw as Arenseal needed to secure the win at home but failed to do so. Manchester City played Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, resulting in a thrilling 3-3 draw with both sides boxing each other left to right. City was winning 2-3 away but their one goal lead would be cut by winger Valverde to make it an interesting return leg.Atlético de Madrid faced off against a surprise Borussia Dortmund at the Estadio Metropolitano. Atletico got things quickly underway by scoring the first and second goals in under 30 minutes. In what looked to be an easy win for Atletico would be ruined by Haller cutting the deficit to 2-1 and making for an interesting return leg. Barcelona traveled to Paris where there would be goals galore in this match as Barca was able to incredibly win 2-3 away and carved their path to the semifinals more accessible now.
But in the second legs, both Spanish teams crumbled to terrible defeats to their retrospective rival. Raphina scored the first goal of the night in Catalonia which made them advance to the semis. But a Red Card for Aruajio would cause a complete collapse for Barcelona as they would lose 1-4 at the night and 6-2 on Arrogate. While Atletico lost to an impressive Dortmund team 5-4 on Arrogate. Arsenal traveled to the Allianz arena in hopes to tumble the Great Bayern Munich, unfortunately for Arsenal a defensive slip-up cost them the match as they only lost 1-0. In the last game, Real Madrid would go to Manchester with only one mission in mind. Eliminate the champions in front of their fans. Madrid scored within only 12 minutes silencing the entirety of the Etihad Stadium. City found their equalizer through their captain Kevin De Bryune and would force extra time in which neither side was able to find a second goal and thus had to be decided by penalties. Luka Modric for Madrid missed his first penalty and City striker Julian Alverez converted his penalty to give a slight advantage for the hosts. In the next set, the roles reversed as City missed their penalty and Real converted to make it 1-1. Kovacic missed a crucial penalty for the champions which would eventually cause the elimination of them as Real Madrid would not miss their last four shots and advance to the semi-finals. The semi-final matches are going to be a rematch of PSG and Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
