Champions League Quarterfinal Underway
John Destefano
The first leg of the Champions league quarterfinal has ended. Half of the teams are from the United Kingdom’s top league with the other half made up of a team from Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Portugal. The current standings have Liverpool from the United Kingdom, Tottenham Hotspur again from the United Kingdom, and FC Barcelona from Spain all ahead after the first leg, while Ajax from the Netherlands and Juventus from Italy remain in a draw.
Liverpool had home advantage for the first leg of the quarter finals, and they capitalized on the ability to catch and early lead against FC Porto, from Portugal. With Naby Keïta scoring his first goal in Champions League play off a deflection from the Porto defender in the first five minutes. Liverpool continued to dominate the first half with a tap in goal from Roberto Firmino sealing first leg at 2-0 in the twenty-fifth minute.
Tottenham had a scary start, giving up a handball inside the box in only eleven minutes of play. Manchester City’s Aguero managed to find Tottenham’s goalie square in the hands keeping the game at zeros. The game remained even into the final third of the game where Son Heung-min managed to score through two Manchester City defenders ending the first leg 1-0 for the Spurs.
FC Barcelona managed to upset the home team within the first ten minutes with a goal from Luis Suárez ending his over 1,300-day Champions league goal drought. Manchester Untied tried the rest of the game to at least even the score while they still had the home field advantage but will travel to Barcelona starting the second leg a goal down.
The final game, and the only game to not have a team from The United Kingdom was Ajax vs. Juventus in the Netherlands. With a long header from Cristiano Ronaldo to end the first half, it looked like the Ajax would be the other team to lose the first leg at their home field. Ajax came out in the second half a team with a vengeance, scoring in the first minute of the second half tying the game 1-1.
None of the spots in the semi-final leg are set in stone. Even with FC Porto 2 goals down there is a whole second set of games to be played for all teams. Champions league benefits from the aggregate scoring, allowing for teams to show who is truly better after both having home games evening the advantage. The two games mean that each team has the ability to recover from a disappointing showing, and there’s no denying that going into the second leg is always exciting, especially when the home team has the chance for a come from behind victory.
