The ever-interesting, captivating UEFA Champions League served us another round of entertaining matches in the first leg of the second round, with the likes of Arsenal and Bayern Munich producing a dominant performance.
It was also the turn of goalkeepers to snatch the talking point, with the duo of Allison Becker and Barcelona’s Wojciech Szczęsny producing sensational performances to lead their teams to victories.
The matches produced a staggering 24 goals, with Arsenal responsible for seven of the goals to move a step closer to the last eight of the competition.
The Gunners are arguably the team of the round in the first leg with their record-breaking 7-1 win over PSV in Holland.
Is This Arsenal’s Year To End Their Champions League Drought?
Arteta’s team set eight records in the encounter with their best performance of the season.
The Gunners are the first side in the history of the Champions League to score seven goals away from home in the knockout stages of the competition.
They are also the first team in Champions League history to have six different scorers (excluding own goals) in an away knockout stage game.
It was the most goals Arsenal have scored in a single game since beating Newcastle 7-3 in the Premier League 13 years ago.
Arteta’s men have also won five successive Champions League games in a single edition of the tournament for the first time since the 05/06 season with victories over Sporting Lisbon, Monaco, Dinamo Zagreb, Girona, and PSV.
Arsenal have now had 12 different goalscorers in the Champions League this season, more than any other team.
He became just the third English player to start in a knockout stage game of the Champions League while under the age of 18, after Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden.
The club’s academy graduate is also the second-youngest Arsenal player to play in a Champions League knockout stage game (17y 348d), after Cesc Fàbregas against Bayern Munich in March 2005 (17y 309d).
Nwaneri is also the third-youngest Champions League knockout goalscorer behind Bojan Krkić and Jude Bellingham.
The sensational performance prompted former Arsenal forward Thierry Henry to tip them to win the competition at the end of the season.
He said, “Yes, they can win the Champions League; I do believe that this is why I called it.
Arsenal’s only chance of winning a trophy at the end of the season is the Champions League, so they will have to produce such a performance in their remaining games in the competition to end their age-long drought.
Dominant Bayern Munich Are In The Mood Again
Vincent Kompany’s team produced a dominant performance to record a 3-0 win over their rivals in the Bundesliga at the Allianz Arena.
It was a one-sided game between Germany’s top two teams, with Harry Kane popping up with a brace in an otherwise poor performance from Bayer Leverkusen.
The Bavarians are now 21 European home games without defeat, winning 17 of those during that time. It was just Leverkusen’s fifth game versus German teams in Europe.
You can’t rule out Bayern Munich in the scheme of things in the knockout stages of the Champions League; they had a topsy-turvy time in the first round, but just at the right moment, they seemed to have found their feet.
Harry Kane also continues to show his importance to the team with another match-winning performance, taking his tally to nine.
He has a quality supporting cast made up of the exciting duo of Jamal Musiala and Michael Olise.
Musiala scored his 17th goal of the season, which is a personal best for him as he continues to show his quality in the team at a young age.
Under Vincent Kompany, Bayern Munich are in the mood again following their struggles under Thomas Tuchel last season, and that means only one thing: the trophy may be knocking; Barcelona fans will not want another clash with the German giants this time.
Liverpool Dim PSG’s Light Thanks To Alisson
The clash between PSG and Liverpool in Paris was another big game that was expected to produce fireworks and talking points after the game, but only one man took the plaudits—Alisson with a ‘performance of his life’ as he described it after the game.
PSG, under Enrique, have been the team to beat in the last few months, scoring goals for fun and taking teams out with reckless abandon with their forwards firing on all children.
Chief of them all is Ousmane Dembele, who is enjoying the best season in his career with 25 goals and six assists in all competitions for PSG to lead their quest for the elusive Champions League and another Ligue 1 title.
The match didn’t live up to the pre-match billing, but PSG will be wondering how they lost a game in which they had 27 shots, with 10 on target, to a Liverpool side with just two shots and one on target, which was the only goal of the encounter.
PSG did everything right, but they found Alisson as a major hindrance in the game, with the Brazilian shot-stopper producing a season-high nine saves to help Liverpool to a slim victory.
No goalkeeper has had more saves while keeping a clean sheet in a Champions League game this season.
The 1-0 defeat ended PSG’s 22-game unbeaten run and 10-game winning streak in all competitions.
Liverpool have now defeated the champions of England, Germany, Spain, and France this season without conceding a goal.
The Reds have all but wrapped up the Premier League title, and they are a strong favourite to win the Champions League, but one man is confident that PSG will turn the tie around at Anfield.
PSG coach Luis Enrique has vowed to exact revenge on Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg.
He said, “I don’t think it’s too difficult to analyse tonight’s game. We were far superior to Liverpool.
“We created more chances and produced a complete performance against one of Europe’s top sides. Football can be unfair at times.
“Without a doubt [they can go through]. We’ve only played the first leg. We’re a side with nothing to lose. If we can replicate tonight’s performance, we can qualify.”
Goalkeepers’ Night, Szczęsny The Hero As Barcelona Pip Benfica
Since 2016/17, there have only been three occasions in Champions League knockout games where a team has failed to score after having 25+ shots. Two of them happened on the same night, courtesy of Wojciech Szczęsny and Alisson Becker.
Wojciech Szczęsny was in his best elements to help 10-man Barcelona to a 1-0 win over Benfica, making a total of eight saves to deny the hosts.
Barcelona’s Pau Cubarsi was sent off for a professional foul on Benfica’s Vangelis Pavlidis in the 22nd minute to ensure a long night for the visitors.
Raphinha scored his 25th goal of the season in the second half, but it was Wojciech Szczęsny’s stunning performance that secured the win
The Polish goalkeeper was the weapon of fashion against Benfica with a series of outstanding saves to keep Barcelona in the game, despite playing with a man down for 68 minutes.
Szczesny made eight saves against Benfica, a record for any Barcelona goalkeeper without conceding a goal in a single Champions League game since at least the 2003/04 season.
He is unbeaten in his first 14 games for Barcelona since joining the club in October after Ter Stegen suffered a season-ending injury.
The former Juventus goalkeeper, who came out of retirement to join Barcelona, has been in impressive form for Hansi Flick’s side.
The second leg is billed for March 11/12, with the likes of Arsenal and Bayern Munich a step closer to qualifying for the quarterfinals.