Real Madrid and Napoli on turned the ultimate two groups to qualify for the quarterfinals of the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League on Wednesday.
Madrid, which received a file 14th European title final season, topped six-time champ Liverpool in Spain’s capital. Real superior 6-2 on combination after final month’s 5-2 rout at Anfield. Karim Benzema sealed the Reds’ destiny with the lone purpose late in Wednesday’s rematch.
In Italy, Napoli dispatched Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 on two targets by Victor Osimhen and one other from Piotr Zieliński. The runaway Serie A chief took the primary leg in Germany 2-0.
Napoli and Real Madrid adopted Manchester City and Inter Milan, which booked its tickets to the final eight on Tuesday. AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Benfica and Chelsea claimed quarterfinal spots final week. Friday’s draw will decide the bracket for the subsequent set of video games, which can be performed on April 11-12 and 18-19.
Here are three fast ideas on this week’s spherical of 16 slate.
Erling Haaland steals the present
Truth be advised, the lopsided first spherical outcomes rendered each of Wednesday’s matches largely anticlimactic. Yet whereas Tuesday’s two video games held extra intrigue, Manchester City was nonetheless broadly anticipated to dispatch RB Leipzig at dwelling following a 1-1 draw in the opener.
What no person anticipated — though no person needs to be shocked — was for Erling Haaland to make historical past by scoring 5 targets, equaling the file Lionel Messi set in 2012.
Haaland is unstoppable. He wasn’t in the highest three at FIFA’s current Best awards, with Messi, Benzema and Kylian Mbappé ending forward of him. But when it comes to the singular means to rating, which is in any case essentially the most precious ability anybody in this sport can possess, the Norwegian is peerless. Haaland is on a file setting tempo in his first season in the Premier League with 28 targets in 26 appearances. His numbers in European play one way or the other are gaudier.
[Erling Haaland’s record-breaking performance by the numbers]
With six Prem titles since 2012, Man City was England’s preeminent group lengthy earlier than Haaland arrived final summer season. But regardless of a couple of close to misses, together with being upset by Prem rival Chelsea in the 2021 finale, the Sky Blues have not but been in a position to seal the deal in the Champions League. From its state-backed possession to supervisor Pep Guardiola to its all-world gamers to its followers, everybody related to Man City is determined for the membership to win this competitors. Haaland offers it its greatest probability but.
Where does Liverpool go from right here?
Liverpool performed nicely sufficient on Wednesday regardless of understanding that the collection’ final result was all however sealed. They dominated Real Madrid for lengthy stretches early in the primary leg at dwelling whereas working out to a 2-0 lead earlier than imploding late in the primary half and conceding 5 consecutive targets to the defending champs.
But all through this season’s keep in the Champions League, Jurgen Klopp’s group by no means appeared something just like the one which reached three finals between 2018 and 2022, successful as soon as. Maybe Sadio Mané, who left for Bayern final summer season, was way more essential than most on Merseyside and past realized. Maybe age is lastly catching up with veterans like Jordan Henderson and even Mo Salah, who in June will flip 33 and 31, respectively. Whatever the explanation, it certain appears like Liverpool, which sits sixth in England and trails Tottenham Hotspur by six factors for the final spot in the 2023-24 Champions League, is firmly on the downward slope after briefly returning to the top of the European sport.
Don’t sleep on Benfica and Napoli
Real Madrid appears intent on retaining its crown, and solely a idiot would wager towards them in a contest they’ve received twice as many instances because the continent’s subsequent most profitable membership facet.
Bayern are additionally proper there and, as famous earlier, Haaland might nicely be the lacking piece for Man City. AC Milan and Chelsea each have a number of Champions Leagues triumphs in this century. Inter Milan received the membership sport’s most coveted prize in 2010.
Which is to say that of the eight groups nonetheless standing, those that appear least seemingly to progress are simple to spot: Benfica and Napoli. Don’t be so certain. While Napoli has by no means progressed to this stage earlier than, the consistency of Luciano Spalletti’s group all yr in home play suggests they could possibly be professional contenders. Despite its storied European historical past, Benfica hasn’t reached the ultimate since 1990 (it received the second of its two titles approach again in 1962). But it has additionally been quietly ruthless in this tourney up to now.
Both stay longshots to win all of it. Whether they attain the final 4 hinges largely on the opponent they’re drawn towards. Still, few would’ve predicted Benfica or Napoli to make it to this stage forward of rivals like Dortmund, Tottenham or Paris Saint-Germain.
Neither will go quietly regardless of the foe.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer author for FOX Sports. Before becoming a member of FOX Sports in 2021, he was a employees author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has lined United States males’s and ladies’s nationwide groups at a number of FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
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