Great game! Thought Atletico came out flat, Dortmund pretty well dominated the 1st half, up 2-0 at halftime. Then Atletico came alive, netted two quick goals to steal back the overall lead and seemed like they were going to ride out the listless Dortmund side. Then it was Dortmund's turn to get hot and they netted two late goals to steal the victory. Tons of action, lots of sloppiness in the goalie boxes, chippy fouls, pissed off ref and a home crowd going wild by the end. Fun ride of a game, not sure how much further Dortmund can go, but they were the better side overall here. There's been a lot of scoring so far this year, if Dortmund can keep it going, they can hang with anyone.
Barcelona 1-3 (agg 3-4) Paris St. Germaine
Barca got the early goal, felt like they were on their way, but PSG's dominance in the 2nd half was much too much for Barca to hang with. Barca just never got anything going after that early goal (Lewandowski is going to waste in Barcelona). PSG feels like the best team left to me.
Bayern Munich 1-0 (agg 3-2) Arsenal
Never felt like either team controlled the attack, each team had moments but for the most part the defenses stood up strong. One moment of brilliance (Guerrero searching swing pass into the box, Kimmich steps into the empty space for the perfect header) and that was about it. Not a boring match but neither side exhibited anything like dominance. So does Bayern have their shit together? Well, most teams would be happy to be in the Champions League semifinal, but this squad still feels shell shocked from their early season woes.
Manchester City 1-1 (agg 3-4 (PKs)) Real Madrid
Feel like I gotta start out by saying it felt to me like Man City was the best team in this year's tourney. Yeah "was" as in, they're no longer around. The opening of the game was some serious chess match stuff where it felt like Man City wanted to suck Real into pressing on defense, but Real held their shape and sagged to prevent any kind of deep penetration. Real was able to create the slightest ripple in Man City's back line and scored an early goal. But Man City wasn't going away, so not a shock that they were able to tie it up and send this on in to penalty kicks. Shame to lose Man City (the Stefon Edberg of soccer), but Real Madrid is rounding into shape, gonna be a tough out going forward.
Semifinal
I gotta go with Real Madrid over Bayern and PSG over Dortmund. The German sides have done well to get here, but I think this is where it ends for both of them.
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