After a thrilling midweek of UEFA Champions League action, here are the winners and losers as we head into the last-16.
Winners
Feyenoord & PSV: These are high times for Dutch football, though the country’s traditional power, Ajax, can only watch from the Europa League as Feyenoord and PSV downed Italian giants.
At the San Siro, Feyenoord were able to ride out their former star Santiago Giménez scoring an opening-minute goal and performing a non-celebration celebration. Pascal Bosschaart continues as Feyenoord’s caretaker manager but whatever happens, he’ll always have Milan, and this tactical triumph.
18-year-old Zépiqueno Redmond led the attack and was replaced by former Philadelphia Union and Inter Miami striker Julián Carranza, who would score the crucial equaliser. It ended 1-1 on the night and Feyenoord went through 2-1 on aggregate; they will face either Inter or Arsenal when Friday’s draw is made.
Kylian Mbappe & Real Madrid:
Who doubted that Mbappé could succeed at Real? Those who did perhaps forgot the depth of his talent and self-belief. Sure, Manchester City’s defence could hardly have been more accommodating, but he grabbed the occasion with both hands.
Credit Carlo Ancelotti, who has found a way to fit all his stars into the same starting lineup and he is surely getting due reward. Mbappe scored a hat-trick and continued his blistering form as Europe’s hottest marksman.
Losers
Manchester City: “Nothing is eternal,” said Pep Guardiola, though he had perhaps forgotten Real Madrid’s stranglehold on this competition, and their continuing ability to wound him.
“We have been extraordinarily extraordinary in the past, but not anymore,” he continued but in such a sound defeat, one preluded by City’s manager claiming his team had just a “1%” chance of progressing, there must be disappointment.
If this is the end of the cycle, then the Abu Dhabi-Catalan partnership yielded just one Champions League title, when many more were possible. This was a meek surrender unrecognizable from much of City’s Guardiola era. Now he must decide whether he gets to lead the club’s next cycle.
Serie A: A disastrous week for Serie A. Inter are the last men standing after Milan, Atalanta and Juventus crashed out to teams from far less wealthy leagues.
Theo Hernández’s red card for two bookable offences, the second a speculative dive that was correctly ruled as simulation, turned Milan’s tie with Feyenoord in the Dutch team’s favour.
After Giménez scored early, Milan’s four-man attack faded, with Rafael Leão and João Félix giving enigmatic performances and Christian Pulisic well short of his usual drive. Sérgio Conceição threw everything at the Rotterdam team, taking off both Pulisic and Yunus Musah in search of an answer, but Milan’s attacking was substandard.
