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Not too long ago, the quarter-finals of the Champions League have just ended and we are on our way to the semifinals. In this article, I will be recapping the games played on the left side of the bracket, including the first leg and second leg. But before I do that, I will explain this competition is for anyone who does not know. The Champions League is a soccer competition for the best of the best teams in Europe. A club would first have to qualify for this competition and then make it past the group stages, the Round of 16, and then to what we are discussing the quarter-finals. In the Round of 16, quarter-finals and semifinals, the teams play two games against each other and the combined scores of both games decide the winner. Now, I will recap the quarter-finals.

On the left side of the bracket, you had Real Madrid vs Chelsea and Manchester City vs Bayern Munich. Real Madrid was favored to win their games of the quarter-finals and possibly win the whole tournament. 

In the first leg of the Real Madrid vs Chelsea game, Real Madrid comfortably won 2-0 with no problems the entire game. Karim Benzema scored Madrid’s first goal at the 21-minute mark from a tap-in because of a deflected shot from Vinicius Jr. In the 50th minute, Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell received a red card for a flagrant foul preventing Madrid forward Rodrygo from scoring a potential goal. Then, in the 74th minute, Marco Asensio received a pass from Vinicius Jr. allowing him to score Madrid’s second. This ended the first leg of Real Madrid vs Chelsea with Madrid up 2-0 on aggregate.

In the second leg, Real Madrid once again beat Chelsea 2-0 and concluded the quarter-finals with a 4-0 aggregate in Madrid’s favor. In this second leg, Rodrygo scored a double for the Spanish club. He scored the first from a tap-in in the 53rd minute and his second also from a tap-in but from the result of a beautiful play from Real Madrid. Real Madrid is through to the semifinals, who will their competition be?

The other quarter-final matches on the bracket’s left side were Manchester City and Bayern Munich. Both of these teams were favored to win the whole tournament so these two matches were both highly anticipated. 

In the first leg, Manchester City unexpectedly thrashed Bayern Munich with a score of 3-0. The first goal happened at the 27th-minute mark from an absolute worldie of a goal from Rodri who curled the ball in the top left corner from outside the box leaving Bayern’s defense stunned. For the next 40 minutes of the game, Manchester City kept the ball nonstop and tired out Bayern Munich causing them to make mistakes. Then in the 70th minute, a Bayern player finally makes a significant mistake causing Erling Haaland to snatch the ball and give a wonderful ball to Bernado Silva giving him his first and Manchester City their second. Then, only 6 minutes later, Erling Haaland gets on the scoresheet from the result of a short corner played by Man City at the 76th-minute mark. Soon, the full-time whistle blows and Bayern is in quite a pickle down 3 goals going into the second leg. 

This second leg would have to be a Bayern miracle, they would have to score 4 goals while preventing City from scoring none to advance. However, that is not what happened as the final score was 1-1. The first half was fairly uneventful. Both teams just tried to pass and find openings and none were successful, However, in the 35th minute, Bayern defenders accidentally handballs it in the box causing Manchester City to receive a penalty. But then, Erling Haaland sent the shot way over the goal keeping the score 0-0. Then, in the 57th minute mark Haaland beats his defender Upamecano and receives the ball to score for city making it 1-0. After this, play continues for both sides until Bayern receives a penalty from a handball from defender Ake. Kimmich scores off this making the score 1-1 and aggregate 4-1 in the 82nd minute. Soon after this, the full-time whistle blows signaling that Manchester City will go on to the semifinals to face Real Madrid and Bayern will go home.