By Safiu Kehinde
The UEFA Champions League knockout stage has finally come into conclusion as the last two clubs to qualify to the quarter-finals list emerged last night.
While Victor Osimhen-inspired Napoli to a 3-nil victory against Eintracht Frankfurt to book their slot into the last eight.
Defending champions, Real Madrid, completed the unfinished business with Liverpool as they added a pinch of salt to the Klopp-led Kop’s wound following a 1-nil victory at the Santiago Bernabu. The Los Blanco’s qualified on 6-2 aggregate, having recorded harvest of goals at Anfield stadium during the first leg.
Other clubs that advanced to the last eight at the 2023 UEFA Champions League campaign include;
Bayern Munich (Germany)
The Bavarians piped the almighty Paris Saint Germaine 3-nil on aggregate to extend the Ligue 1 giants Champions League woe. PSG were paid with their own coin during the first leg as a lone goal the club’s former wonder kid, Kingsley Coman, stole victory for Bayern at the Parc De Princes stadium.
The French side still could not prevent getting robbed twice as the return leg saw the German side putting an unresponsive two goals past PSG with another former player, Eric Choupo-Moting scoring against his old club.
Benfica (Portugal)
Benfica’s impressive Champions League campaign continues once again as they bossed Club Brugge at both legs of the Knockout Stage. They had gone to record 2-nil away victory in the first leg while the second leg return saw them put five goals past the Club Brugge.
Though the Belgian side managed to pull one back, but this was not enough to salvage the damage already done by the Portuguese side as they bowed out of the tournament-costing their manager, Scott Parker, his job in the process.
Chelsea (England)
This London side have never had it this worse in a Premier League season, yet they managed to scale through to the last eight. Currently sitting tenth on the English Premier League table with 37 points across 27 league matches, the Blues, however, pulled another Champions League surprise against Borussia Dortmund as they came back from a 1-0 defeat at the first leg to 2-1 victory on aggregate.
The Blues and their under fire boss, Graham Potter, are looking towards repeating the 2012 magic which saw them won their Champions League Cup despite finishing fifth at the end of the Premier League season.
Manchester City (England)
Manchester City’s quest for Champions League silverware continues as they have, again, scaled through the last eight. The seven goals trashing of RB Leipzig at the Etihad Stadium was more than enough to see Pep Guardiola’s side through.
Though RB Leipzig held the Premier League giant to a 1-1 ransom in the first leg, the German side was, however, no match for Manchester City at the second leg where Erling Haaland put five goals past Janis Blaswich and two other goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan put the icing on the cake for the Cityzens.
AC Milan (Italy)
Keep Harry Kane away from goal and we march on to the Quarter-finals. This was a simple instruction which saw the Serie A giant ousting Tottenham Hotspur from the tournament. Having recorded 1-0 victory in the first leg, the San Siro outfit only needed to held the Spurs to a goalless draw at the White Hart Lane stadium to knockout Antonio Conte’s men.
Inter Milan (Italy)
Just like their sister club, all Inter Milan had to do was to keep FC Porto at bay in the second. The Nerazurri’s 1-0 victory against the Portuguese side in the first leg was enough to see them through as Porto failed to find the back of the net in second leg at Estadio do Dragao.
Meanwhile, the draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place tomorrow.
