Two ties on Tuesday and two blowouts on Wednesday. Those were the results of the first round of the UEFA Champions League Quarterfinals this week. Paris Saint-Germain defeated Chelsea 3-1, but with a cost. Their star player Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be out for four weeks due to a hamstring injury. That will hurt PSG’s chances of moving forward in the tournament and in the regular season. Ibrahimovic was the second-best scorer in the entire tournament with 10 goals.
Then there was Real Madrid destroying Borussia Dortmund 3-0. Gareth Bale started the game out strong with a goal in just the 3rd minute and then Isco scored a goal before the end of the first half. Cristiano Ronaldo iced the game with a goal in the 57th minute.
Then on Tuesday, Barcelona tied with Atletico Madrid 1-1 and Manchester United had the same result with Bayern Munich. It is safely assumed that Real Madrid and PSG will advance to the UEFA Semi-Finals, so it is up to the other two intriguing matches to determine who will play these European powerhouses. We will have to wait until April 9th to determine how the rest of the tournament will favor. That’s when Barcelona will get their rematch with La Liga rival Atletico Madrid and when Manchester United battles with Bayern Munich once more.
Cristiano Ronaldo is playing at another level right now. He leads everyone in the UEFA Champions League with 14 goals in just 8 games. Lionel Messi of Barcelona is 3rd with 8. Going back to Ronaldo, he has scored more goals than games played total this year. In La Liga, he has played 27 and scored 28, along with 8 assists. He has always been battling with Lionel Messi to determine who the best footballer in the world is. As for right now, Ronaldo is holding that spot, seeing that his team has been doing great in the Champions League tournament.
As for La Liga, Atletico Madrid is on top of the table, followed by Barcelona and then Real Madrid. Barcelona leads the league in goals scored with 89 and have only allowed 25 scored against them. Real Madrid are second in goals scored, but their goal differential is 10 less than Barcelona’s. With everything moving forward and the Champions Legue dwindling down, this looks like it would be a big showdown between great European teams.
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