UEFA Champions League
Atletico win at Old Trafford to knock United out
Atletico Madrid knocked Manchester United out of the Champions League and moved into the quarter-finals after a 41st minute header from Brazilian Renan Lodi gave them a 1-0 (2-1 aggregate) win at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
It was a typical display of the kind of gritty defending and swift counter-attacking for which Diego Simeone’s Atletico side have been known while United, for all their pressure, were unable to create enough quality opportunities to get themselves the goal they needed.
United, who have not won a trophy since the Europa League in 2017, are left to focus on a Premier League campaign where they face a real battle to make the top four and earn a place in next year’s Champions League.
The Spanish champions may not be favourites to reach the final in Paris on May 28 but none of the teams in the last eight will be hoping to be drawn against them.
After Saturday’s win over Tottenham Hotspur, inspired by a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick, there was a positive mood around Old Trafford and the night began brightly for United with Anthony Elanga forcing a fine reflex save out of Jan Oblak with a near post flick from a Bruno Fernandes cross
United’s Spanish keeper David de Gea then produced an outstanding diving save to push wide a long range effort from Rodrigo De Paul.
Joao Felix then had the ball in the net, tapping in a cross from Marcos Llorente but the effort was ruled out for offside.
There was no reprieve though for United, though, when after a trademark Atletico counter-attack, a clever flick from Joao Felix found Antoine Griezmann whose cross was nodded in at the back post by Lodi.
United argued that the move had followed a foul on Elanga deep in Atletico’s half but referee Slavko Vincic waved away their protests.
Fernandes ended the half with a fierce shot that again tested Oblak to the full and raised hopes among the home support ahead of the second half.
United, as expected, poured forward after the break in search of an equaliser but there was little design or craft to their attacks.
LACK OF CREATIVITY
Interim manager Ralf Rangnick threw on forwards as he sought the breakthrough bringing on Marcus Rashford and Edinson Cavani to play up front with Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho.
But his decision to take off Fernandes in the 67th minute left the team short of creativity and their attacks were increasingly just one dimensional charges at the Atletico back line.
Captain Harry Maguire was taken off, to cheers from the home support, as Rangnick threw on Spanish winger Juan Mata but the nearest United came to an equaliser was a fine header from Raphael Varane that had Oblak at full stretch.
It was scrappy and at times cynical from Atletico in the latter stages but their disciplined defence held firm for the victory that sends them into the last eight.
“We want to go far in the competition and it’s incredible to still be in it. It’s important for us to still be in the Champions League in what’s an up-and-down season,” said midfielder Koke.
“For me, Jan Oblak is the best goalkeeper in the world. He’s shown it once again tonight.”
Rangnick was upset with the refereeing of the game but had few complaints about his team’s performance.
“I think we played a very good first half – exactly the way we wanted to play with a high energy level but we couldn’t convert that into one or two goals,” he said.
“Conceding that counter-attacking goal just before halftime didn’t make life any easier. It was hard in the second half and always interrupted. There was always somebody lying on the floor.
“I would also say some curious refereeing decisions. I wouldn’t say they were decisive but at least he fell too often for those time-wasting antics.”
-Reuters
Spain’s LaLiga will be represented by at least five teams in the Champions League next season after Italy’s Lazio were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday while Athletic Bilbao progressed to the semi-finals.
LaLiga earned the second of two European Performance Spots handed out by UEFA, which go to associations “with the best collective performance by their clubs” in UEFA competitions.
England’s Premier League was the first to secure an extra berth in Europe’s top competition, on top of the four granted to the top four teams in the domestic table.
Villarreal are fifth in the LaLiga standings, with 51 points from 30 matches.
They are three points ahead of sixth-placed Real Betis and eight in front of Celta Vigo and Mallorca, with all three clubs having played one more game than Villarreal.
-Reuters
Real Madrid’s record-breaking manager Carlo Ancelotti had no complaints after his side’s Champions League reign was ended in emphatic fashion by Arsenal in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Italian Ancelotti won a record-extending fifth Champions League trophy last season as Real beat Borussia Dortmund at Wembley, but his side went down 2-1 at home to Arsenal for a crushing 5-1 aggregate defeat.
“There are two sides to football, the happy part that has happened to us many times and the sad part we have to handle in the same way. It has happened to us fewer times than to other teams, but we have to manage it because it allows us to be better in the next games.”
When Real keeper Thibaut Courtois saved Bukayo Saka’s early penalty and minutes later Real were awarded a spot kick for a push by Declan Rice on Kylian Mbappe, it seemed that the great escape might still be a possibility.
But Real’s penalty was overturned after a lengthy VAR check, and in truth, they never looked remotely threatening as their bid for a 16th European Cup crown ended in feeble fashion.
“To change the dynamic, we needed something positive, like the penalty he whistled and then took off. We needed something to have more confidence, but we were not able to change the dynamic of the first leg,” Ancelotti said.
Despite the defeat, Ancelotti said Real’s season still has plenty of possibilities, not least trying to bridge a four-point gap to La Liga leaders Barcelona.
“Now we are in the fight for La Liga. We have a disadvantage, but we have the Barcelona game, we have the Copa del Rey final, the Club World Cup, and we have to manage this part, which is another part of football that we are not used to,” he said.
“It’s time to hold our heads high and learn from our mistakes. It’s sad today, but I have absolutely no worries about how my players will respond. We’ll fight on, we’ll learn from the experience, and we’ll try to be better for the next match.”
-Reuters
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Arsenal snuffed out any chance of a famous Real Madrid comeback to reach the Champions League semi-finals after a 2-1 victory in the Bernabeu Stadium completed a 5-1 aggregate win on Wednesday.
Holders and 15-time winners Real never looked like clawing back a 3-0 deficit from last week’s quarter-final first leg, and when Bukayo Saka scored for the visitors in the 65th minute, their fate was effectively sealed.
Vinicius Junior seized on a rare defensive slip a couple of minutes later to rouse the home crowd, but it proved too little too late as Carlo Ancelotti’s side exited feebly.
Arsenal’s superiority over the two legs was underlined in stoppage time as Gabriel Martinelli burst through to score.
They will face Paris St Germain in their first Champions League semi-final since 2009.
“I think it’s such a special night for this club, it’s a historic night for this club,” said Arsenal’s Declan Rice, whose two sublime free kicks put his side in control last week.
“There was a lot of talk coming in about them coming back from the dead, they’ve done it so many times before. But we had so much belief and confidence from that first leg that we had enough to come here and win the game.”
A cacophony of noise greeted kickoff with the home fans fuelled by the hope of witnessing what would have been one of the greatest Champions League comebacks.
But Real’s knack of extricating themselves from difficult positions in a competition they won six times in the previous 11 seasons deserted them as they were comprehensively outplayed.
“Did we fall short of what we wanted in pure football terms? Perhaps,” Real captain Lucas Vazquez said. “They really are terrifically organised defensively.”
PENALTY MISS
Real needed a storming start, and Mbappe had the ball in the Arsenal net in the opening minutes but was offside when chesting in a Vinicius cross.
Arsenal were in no mood to simply sit and protect their lead, though, and Saka forced a great save from Courtois. They were handed the chance to kill off the tie when Raul Asencio needlessly hauled down Mikel Merino from a corner, and referee Francois Letexier eventually awarded a penalty after checking a pitch-side VAR monitor.
Saka opted for a Panenka-style chipped penalty, and Courtois clawed away the ball.
It looked like a potentially pivotal moment, and when Letexier pointed to the penalty spot at the other end after Kylian Mbappe tumbled under minimal contact from Rice, Arsenal’s night looked like taking a turn for the worse.
After five painstaking minutes, however, Letexier was again invited by VAR to view the monitor and to a chorus of whistles from the home fans, overturned his original decision.
That scare aside, Arsenal coped easily with Real Madrid’s famed frontline who were given little to work with.
Arsenal keeper David Raya was not required to make a save before halftime as Real’s predilection for hopeful crosses into the area proved easy pickings for the visiting defence.
Real’s Mbappe barely had a sniff of a chance as Arsenal showed great control and Saka made up for his first-half miss with a clinical finish after being sent clear by Merino.
William Saliba gifted Real a lifeline when he was caught in possession on the edge of his area, allowing Vinicius to score, but there was never any sense of panic in the visiting ranks.
Martinelli put the icing on the cake in added time, again from a Merino assist, to send Arsenal’s fans into raptures.
-Reuters
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