With second leg of Champions League round of 16 approaching, let us look back at what happened in the fixtures in February.
The West London club, Chelsea FC were entertained by Paris Saint Germain at Parc-des-Princes. The visitors drew first blood as Ivanovic scored before the half time break. Edinson Cavani cancelled out Chelsea’s lead in the 54th minute. The Parisians were the more impressive side as they recorded seven shots on target, while Mourinho’s men, on the contrary, had only one shot on target out of a total two. The aggregate score is 1 – 1, but Chelsea have an away goal advantage. If both the teams fail to score at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea will advance to the quarter finals on the away goal rule.
Surprisingly, the German champions Bayern Munich couldn’t find a breakthrough goal against Shakhtar Donetsk. Also the Spanish midfielder, Xabi Alonso got sent off and won’t feature in the clash at the Allianz Arena. Another German giant, Borussia Dortmund didn’t do better themselves. Jurgen Klopp’s team lost to Juventus in Turin. Although this tie is far from over despite the aggregate score being 2 – 1. Barcelona traveled to England on the same night and the result was quite similar to the game in Italy, but in the match at the Etihad, the away team picked up a 2 – 1 victory. Luis Suarez ran the show on his return to England and scored both the goals for the Catalonian giants. For City, Sergio Aguero netted a goal. Manchester City have a tough task ahead of them when they face Luis Enrique’s men at Camp Nou.
Real Madrid registered a comfortable victory over Schalke in Germany. They take a two goals lead back to the Santiago Bernabeu. Schalke needs an exceptional performance for the entire ninety minutes to eliminate the European champions in this first knock round. The other Madrid side was however stunned by a Bundesliga outfit. Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid lost 1 – 0 to Bayer Leverkusen courtesy of the 57th minute strike of Calhanoglu. Atletico made it to the Champions League final in 2014 and it will be really shocking if they crash out in this round.
The most unexpected result of the first round of games was the game at the Emirates. The Gunners lost 1 – 3 at home to AS Monaco. The Ligue 1 side has three away goals and the things don’t look very promising for Arsene Wenger’s team. Although, if they turn it around, it would be remembered as an enormous comeback. Last but not the least, FC Basel and Porto played a 1 – 1 draw and the winner of this fixture will be decided in Portugal.