2018-19 Champions League (Round of 16)

1st Leg

Manchester United 0-2 Paris Saint-Germain
1st half felt like Man U had most of the momentum, attacked hard early on, but didn't overwhelm PSG; lot of yellow cards: ref might've been a little harsh, thought it was mostly just high intensity play, nothing too malicious (though Ashley Young was lucky not to get booted on a dangerous push in the back on Di Maria). 2nd half was more of the same but a perfect touch off a corner kick by Kimpembe in the 53rd minute gave PSG an all-important road goal, then they wisely kept up the attack just missing on another corner a few minutes later. Man U needs to take back the momentum now or they're gonna get run out of the stadium. And there it is: 60th minute Mbappe finishes on the breakaway and it feels like Manchester is cooked. Outside of Pogba (even he kinda disappeared in the 2nd half) and DeGea (some really marvelous saves, though the score sheet doesn't look to be in his favor), I just don't see much in this Manchester United side; the defense is okay but attack is badly lacking, a far cry from the 1990s teams that used to rumble over people Crimson Tide-like. Considering how little attack they had, seems really weird they waited til the 85th minute to bring Lukaku off the bench (he's a guy that requires a lot of service, you really have to build your attack around him rather than just plugging him in, but in a game like this I would've gone with him from the start). Ashley Young could've been red card-ed for his hit on DiMaria, instead he gets a second yellow for...well, I never figured out what it was for but looks like he'll be out of the return match. Pogba's hit was worth a second yellow, I guess, but man Man U's gonna be pretty thin when they head to Paris.

Roma 2-1 Porto
The 1st half of this game was all Roma, they seemed more likely to score and less likely to get scored on, felt like this would be a rout. But Porto held them for 70 minutes, starting to feel like Porto would escape with a scoreless draw. But Roma finally connected, then connected again soon after and all the momentum was back and it felt like they were gonna go into the second leg with a 2-0 thumping under the belt. But Porto snuck a late goal that could be kinda huge, a road goal feels like something of a reward for that first 70 minutes of withstanding the attack. We'll see it goes back in Portugal, but here Roma was clearly the better team.

Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Borussia Dortmund
The 1st half struck me as mild and fairly even, with Dortmund looking like probably the more complete and dangerous team. Yeah, that ended at halftime. Tottenham scored right away (lovely finish off a lovely cross after the defense pushed forward but forgot to bring the ball with them), added another not long after (another lovely finish off another lovely cross, albeit this time in traffic with actual defense), and then piled on with a seeing-eye header off a corner kick. Dortmund is capable of piling up goals at home but they don't seem capable of scoring and playing defense at the same time, meaning that Tottenham is very much in the driver's seat for the second leg.

Ajax 1-2 Real Madrid
In the 1st half I was impressed with Ajax's attack, they controlled the ball, pushed forward with abandon and really kept Real out of the action. They had a goal (nice rebound finish off a blocked corner kick) taken away by replay: I dunno, man, could've gone either way, I mean there is contact with the keeper but the keeper wasn't gonna make that save, the contact was incidental. Scoreless draw at the half. Real asserted themselves better in the 2nd half culminating in a 60th minute goal: Vinicius did some beautiful work up the sideline, beating his defender, dragging the ball through the box sculpting the defense to his liking, then laying it off to Benzema for the finish, keeper couldn't do anything. After that it felt like Real had crushed the home crowd, Ajax's superior offense went from ambitious to desperate. But in the 75th minute Ajax capitalized on a bad giveaway in the Real backfield (sneaky good finish: set up on the right foot, instead he shoots with the left back to the near post, using the keeper's momentum against him). From then on Ajax returned to their good attack, taking advantage of the fact that Real had prematurely subbed Bale and Benzema and Vinicius,really felt like they might score again. Instead it was Real that snuck the game winner on a breakaway (perfect cross, perfect finish) in the 85th. Heart breaker for Ajax, they really dominated most of this game but they couldn't get it done. Considering how lackluster their offense was this is a great result for Real, two road goals and a W sets them up very well for the 2nd leg.

Lyon 0-0 Barcelona
Gotta say: one of the more action-packed (sorta) scoreless draws I've ever seen. Thought both teams had plenty of chances of to score (especially Barca) but nobody bothered to take a good shot in the whole game. Plenty of good offense unhampered by intrusive defense but shooters somehow managed to never get a good final touch. All in all, Lyon did well to escape without any damage, though it was clear they were the second best team in this game. Telling moment: not even three minutes in, Messi got free just outside the box and the defender pulled him down without hesitation, you knew right then it was gonna be a long day for Lyon.

Liverpool 0-0 Bayern Munich
Liverpool felt like the better side throughout, really dominated the offense in the 2nd half. But they never did score leaving Bayern (who looks strangely soft this year, like the whole team has a cold) in a pretty good spot going into the next leg.

Schalke 04 2-3 Manchester City
Boy, Schalke had a brutally bad brain fart on that first MC goal: a challenge at midfield left a Schalke player down but rather than play the ball out, it drifetd all the way back to the gaolie, who made a lazy pass that got picked and converted; sucks, but the goal was legit. Schalke was able to get two PK's before halftime (the first one was a tough call, I mean clear handball but no intent and I thought minimal effect, letter of the law but not the spirit kinda call; the second one, I dunno, it just looked a pack of dudes bashing into each other, not sure how you can foul on that, but oh well), looked to be sitting pretty. But Man City was just all-around the better team, tied it up on a brilliant free kick, took the lead soon after on a perfect reaction to searching long ball, keeper was cooked. Man, you take away two penalty kicks and Schalke flat out got slaughtered in this game. Not only did the lose but they gave up 3 away goals, which is going to require a massive effort to move on. Those Bundesliga teams are not looking good: in the case of Dortmund I wasn't sure if Tottenham was the stronger side or just had a better day, Bayern was not the stronger side and did well to escape with a scoreless draw, and Schalke was not the stronger side and did not have the better day, so they're pretty much cooked.

Atletico Madrid 2-0 Juventus
Home side Atletico added two late goals to make it look like a runaway and they deserved it, they were clearly the better side. That said, it took them a long time to finally get on the board (had one taken away by replay, good call, I didn't notice that foul before the shot either), felt like Juve might steal one or at least get a reasonable result. Atletico attacked better, generally defended better and throwing a coupla late ones into the net felt like the proper result.


2nd leg predictions
PSG (*) 2-1 Man U
Porto 0-1 Roma (*)
Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Tottenham (*)
Real Madrid (*) 3-1 Ajax
Barcelona (*) 3-0 Lyon
Bayern Munich (*) 1-0 Liverpool
Man City (*) 2-1 Schalke
Juventus 2-1 Atletico Madrid (*)