2024 Champions League (Quarterfinals (1st Leg))

Arsenal 2-2 Bayern Munich

Arsenal opened the scoring on a lovely touch finding a momentary hole in the back line. Bayern's equalizer came from a botched pass out of the Arsenal defense (dude, crappy pass, crappy reception, bad giveaway). Bayern took the lead before halftime on a PK (good call). Arsenal secured the draw with some lovely touches in the box leading to a wide open strike. Bayern put one more off the post but couldn't convert and Arsenal had non-call in the box go against them (uh, looked like a penalty to me). Thought Bayern was the better team, they've been shaky all season long and they did let Arsenal get to goal twice, but if Bayern keeps to this level, they can advance. Even up going back to Munich, I gotta go with Bayern to try and salvage what has been a disappointing season.

Real Madrid 3-3 Manchester City

First: all three of Manchester's goals were awesome! That 2nd minute free kick goal was just not something I saw coming (neither did Real). Real bounced back nicely netting two goals (both deflections, fwiw) within the next ten minutes to hold the halftime lead. Felt like Real was gonna hold up but Man City got two quick goals--both nasty rips from the top of the box--to steal the momentum. But Real was able to secure the draw with a bullet from Valverde. Both teams were active, both teams attacked (and yet both were sturdy in the back), lots of action throughout, I wanna say the winner of this match moves on but everyone scored goals, too, so this might be all offense down the stretch. I like Man City to get the W back at home. 

Atletico Madrid 2-1 Borussia Dortmund

Atletico opened the scoring in the 5th minute off a bad giveaway in the backfield led to the nifty finish (keeper was cooked).  Atletico extended the lead before halftime on another bad giveaway from the Dortmund defense. Felt like this might be a boat race, but I thought Dortmund pretty well dominated the 2nd half--hit the crossbar a million times!--but were only able to get back one goal (only a really nice spinning recovery rip). If Dortmund covers their mistakes, they've still got a shot at moving on, as Atletico is nice but hardly feels dominant. 

Paris SG 2-3 Barcelona

Barca opened the scoring before the half by capitalizing on chaos in front of the goal to stick an empty netter. Dembele got the equalizer right after halftime (with just a postage stamp of space!). PSG came right back and took the lead on a lovely finish as the overlapping run into the box found another postage stamp of space. From that point on, I thought Barca took over and were able to steal back to more goals: Rafinha with a perfect touch on an overhead cross into the box and a corner. Both teams are fairly evenly matched but Barcelona going back home with a lead is gonna be tough to beat.