The duel between Manchester City and Bayern Munich was not only in the quarter-finals, but perhaps the biggest rally in this year’s Premier League season, but the English champion team actually knocked out the German record champion in the first match, who helped him off the bench. Zsolt Lőw as well as Thomas Tuchel. And in the other quarter-final match on Tuesday evening, the Italian Internazionale achieved a big surprise by defeating Benfica with two goals, and thus Simone Inzaghi’s team took a big step towards reaching the semi-finals. Champions pronouncements and other interesting facts about the quarter-finals on Tuesday to come.
City executed Bayern
Before the quarter-finals on Tuesday, Bayern Munich won all its matches in the English Premier League this season, but Manchester City was still the favorite for the meeting, as Pep Guardiola’s team won its last ten matches at home in 2023. The English team made a great start to the match, Bayern was chasing the ball, and in the 27th minute, City took the lead with a miraculous goal by Rodri. Bayern advanced at the beginning of the second half, but after a fatal defensive error in the 70th minute, the English team strengthened its lead with a header by Bernardo Silva, and in the 76th minute Erling Haaland made it 3-0. In the beginning, Manchester City missed many great opportunities, it could have won by a larger margin, but Jan Sommer made a great save, thus saving his team from greater margins of defeat.
“It hurts so much right now. We played well in the first sixty minutes, but after the second goal we made a lot of mistakes and missed a lot of chances. It was a very difficult night.” he told Prime Video after the meeting Joshua KimmichBayern Munich midfielder.
“When you face them, you realize how good Bayern are. It was a difficult game for sixty minutes. They were many times better than us, but we scored the second goal after the 65th minute and that helped us a lot. We were aggressive and that’s why we scored the second goal. The result was very good, but there is still a rematch. – He rated BT Sport Pep Guardiolawho emphasized in the post-match press conference that, as a former Bayern coach, he knows what it means to play at the Allianz Arena, so his team will have to come up with something new away from home.
“I can’t accept this result at all. We were punished in parts of the game when we were the better team. They simply brutally punished us. I don’t want to talk about the result, but I saw a very good performance in the 70th minute. I think we deserved at least one goal and I think we scored one or two goals more than we should have. Our players lacked a bit of confidence. Of course, the result was bitter for us, but today I fell in love with my team a little bit for the way they performed. Even if it seemed strange, it was a lot of fun.” – said Prime Video after the match Thomas TuchelBayern Munich coach.
It can be said that Manchester City is the best team in the world, but it has not yet been able to reach the top in the Champions League, because it always plays better in the knockout stages than its opponents, but it is often unable to finish its matches. right on time. But in the face of Bayern, the killer’s instinct appeared, which was confirmed by Rodri, who scored the first goal.
It’s a great result for us, and also the way the team played. The key was defense. It was cool and we understood how to punish them. It was great for me to score my first goal in the Champions League. Sometimes we have to accept that we can’t get eighty percent of the ball, because they also play well. We scored three goals but we could have scored four. However, we don’t think we’re done. “We must try to win the match in Munich as well,” the Spain international told BT Sport. Rodriwho scored 16 goals in 194 matches for Manchester City, but it was the first time he scored in the Champions League.
Manchester City defender John Stones, England’s national team player, was named man of the match. He is a central defender in terms of his position, but this time he played a defensive midfielder alongside Rodri.
It’s quite a learning curve for me in terms of positioning. This is not normal, I am constantly learning. I try to express myself in the ball game. “My coach wouldn’t expect me to do it if he didn’t think I could do it,” John Stones told BT Sport.
Tuchel and Lőw can only lose this season
On March 24, it became official, which had already been reported as fact on social media the day before: Bayern Munich fired coach Julian Nagelsmann. The dismissal of the 35-year-old coaching genius was also completely unexpected, because Bayern Munich bought him out of his Leipzig contract for 25 million euros in the summer of 2021, and by the way, they signed a five-year contract with him. .
Under Nagelsmann, Bayern Munich won every Champions League game this season, conceding no goals in the round of 16, to eliminate Paris Saint-Germain with a double victory. Before the match against Borussia Dortmund on 1 April, Bayern were only second in the Bundesliga, but they were still competing in the German Cup and had good chances in the Champions League.
Immediately after Nagelsmann’s dismissal, the appointment of Thomas Tuchel was announced, followed by his permanent assistant coach and close friend Zsolt Lőw to Munich. Tuchel made his dream debut, as Bayern beat Der Klassieker over Dortmund 4-2 with a great match, then came the nightmarish defeat against Freiburg, and now the knockout defeat against Manchester City.
Bayern Munich will certainly be champions in the Bundesliga, but since the Bavarian team has been champions for the past 10 seasons, this doesn’t have much news value. On the one hand, it is so because the team is immediately knocked out of the German Cup with the newly appointed new coach, and in the Champions League it will take a real miracle to advance, because they will have to turn around with a triple: goal deficit against the best team in the world, whose chances tend to to be zero percent.
This season of Bayern Munich will definitely be a failure, and it will be difficult for Thomas Tuchel and Zolte Law to accept it, because before their arrival, the German record champions were competing for victory in every series, but now only the championship remains. But this whole mess isn’t almost Tuchel’s fault though, but the fault of those sporting leaders who thought it was a good idea to sack one of the most talented coaches in the world during a great season, just because Bayern didn’t top the league. by 15 points.
Will there be an Italian team in the Premier League final in six years?!
In the other quarter-final match, on Tuesday, Italy’s Internazionale won 2-0 at home to Portugal’s Benfica. The Milan team consists of better names on paper, but Simone Inzgahi’s team was in great trouble, because before the meeting they were in six matches in a row, and in the Italian League they dropped to fifth place.
The meeting did not come at a high level, and there were no chances in the first half, however, in the 51st minute, Inter took the lead with a header from Niccolo Barella, and in the first half, the Belgian international player Romelu Lukaku secured victory with a penalty kick. Milan, therefore, can look forward to replaying the game from a suitable position.
“The boys played a great match against a very strong team in a great atmosphere. At the same time, we know this was just a joke, because Benfica has already shown this season that they can play a great game everywhere. We’ll need another great performance to reach the semi-finals.” He said after the meeting Simon InzaghiThe Internazionale coach confirmed that he was confident of a good result because his team had played good matches in recent weeks, but was unable to convert his chances into goals.
“According to a quick analysis, they were better than us. They scored two goals from their few chances, we had the same number of chances and couldn’t score. This is the story of the match. “It’s part of football and sometimes we lose games,” he said after the match. Roger SchmidtBenfica coach.
“Benfica is a great team, but I knew and said we have to come here and play without fear because we can win. And we did. But we can’t believe we’ve already reached the semi-finals, because we’re not. Next week we’re still here,” he said after the meeting. We need a great match like today.” Andre OnanaCameroonian goalkeeper Inter.
Executing the penalty is just a matter of focus. I never listened to anyone – not even my colleagues – before they agreed. I’m glad I was able to help my teammates again tonight. We played smart and had chances to score more goals. “But 2-0 against such a strong team is definitely a good result,” the Belgium international said after the match. Romelu Lukakuwho has received a lot of criticism this season, but in the Premier League he already has four goals in five matches.
For the first time in its history, Inter played four consecutive matches without conceding a goal in the knockout stages of the English Premier League.
- 0-1 Liverpool (A)
- 1-0 Porto (home)
- 0-0 Porto (guest)
- 0-2 Benfica (A)
If Inter overtakes Benfica next week, it is certain that there will be an Italian team in the BL final after seven years, where Inter will meet the winner of the Napoli-Milan duel in the semi-finals.
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Finally, let’s see the more interesting stats from Tuesday’s quarterfinals:
- Pep Guardiola has won 55% of his matches in the Champions League knockout stage (40/73). Among those who have played more than 30 matches in the knockout stages (including the finals), he has the best winning record of any coach and is the only one to win more than half of his matches.
- Rodri is the sixth Spanish player to score for Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League. Only Chelsea (8) has more Spanish goalscorers as a non-Spanish club – Liverpool also has six Spanish goalscorers.
Haaland keeps breaking recordsSource: AFP/Oli Scarfe - Erling Haaland won a match against Bayern for the first time in his career. Previously, he had scored five goals and lost seven in seven matches.
- Haaland has already scored 45 goals in all competitions this season, the most goals scored by a player in the Premier League in one season.
- Bayern Munich went the first 45 minutes without a shot on goal in the match against Manchester City, which has happened only five times in the past seven seasons with the Bavarian national team.
- Niccolo Barella scored his first header for Inter Milan. The Italian midfielder has already scored seven goals in the 2022/23 season, which is a personal record for the number of goals he has scored during his career.
UEFA Champions League, quarter-finals, home and away:
Manchester City (English) – Bayern Munich (Germany) 3-0 (1-0)
Scorers: Rodri (27), Silva (70), Haaland (77)
Benfica (Portugal) – Internazionale (IT) 0-2 (0-0)
Scorers: Barella (51), Lukaku (82, from 11)
