Manchester City 0-0 Dynamo Kiev (City advance 3-1 on aggregate)
For 90 minutes Manchester City seemed content with seeing out the second leg against Dynamo Kiev without incident. And while they succeeded in preventing any catastrophic collapse that let Kiev back into the tie, City had to deal with two injuries to their starting center backs. Both Vincent Kompany and Nicolás Otamendi had to be subbed off after just 25 minutes.
While City was hoping the storyline would be the club’s first ever trip to the Champions League quarter-finals, it seems that instead the story will be the health of the club’s two main defenders. It’s not immediately clear if either player will be forced to miss significant time, but for Kompany, it’s another calf injury that has plagued his career.
14 calf injuries for Kompany since 2008… Apparently this is number 15 for the City skipper… Will he be back to help the Prem push?
— COPA90 (@Copa90) March 15, 2016
If either, or both player misses time in the coming weeks it could derail City’s season in the Premier Leauge. City is delicately holding onto a top-four spot in England, and they can ill-afford any slip-up, especially with Manchester United and West Ham United nipping at their heals.
Despite the injuries, City will be happy to be in the last-eight for the first time in their club’s history. They have underperformed in recent seasons, but in their defense, playing teams like Barcelona in the round of 16 in recent years is usually a death sentence.
Today’s meeting with Kiev was a pretty quiet affair, but City knew they had done all they needed to do in the first leg. Kiev would have need to score three goals to advance, and so City was in no mood to take chances. It meant that City did little going forward, but a few chances were created simply due to the individual class of many of Manchester’s forwards.
Kiev did very little to trouble Joe Hart. The visitors’ best chance came right before the final whistle when Hart was forced to make a great save. It would have made no difference, apart from ruining Hart’s clean sheet, as the full-time whistle blew just seconds after Hart’s save. Raheem Sterling also had a lovely bit of skill late in the game.
That Raheem Sterling elastico though 👀 👀 #UCLonFOX https://t.co/dJULJ9QHEp
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 15, 2016
City will be thrilled to move into a place they’ve never been. Depending on the draw they get for the quarterfinal, as well as the health of two of their star defenders they could conceivably move on to further unknown territory. First they have the Manchester Derby to worry about this weekend.
And in the other game of the day, Atletico Madrid and PSV Eindhoven spent 210 minutes ending their series 0-0. While this game today left both teams with great chances that resulted in hitting the post, penalties ensued.
What happened next was one of the most exquisite penalty taking ever. PSV and Atletico Madrid combined to convert the first 14 penalty kicks, resulting in a 7-7 scoreline after seven rounds.
As Luciano Narsingh’s ball rocked off the crossbar, Atletico finally had a chance to take the win in the eighth round. Juanfran stepped up and became the hero for the home fans.
Juanfran hits the decisive penalty to send Atletico to the #UCL quarterfinals for the 3rd straight season! #UCLonFOX https://t.co/cREoWPx7kr
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 15, 2016
So what started as a rather dull 0-0 contests today ended in a classic penalty shootout. Tomorrow, Bayern Munich take on Juventus (2-2 on aggregate) while Barcelona go against Arsenal (Barcelona up 2-0 on aggregate).
