Champions League Roundup: Liverpool Lose, Newcastle Hold Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid Win Big

Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid are two steps away from the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League after their remarkable Tuesday wins. However, Liverpool FC and FC Barcelona will have to wait for their second-leg matches to know their fate.

Bayern Munich delivered a resounding victory over Atalanta BC by 61 despite their star striker Harry Kane not being in the starting lineup. Kane, who has a tally of 47 goals for club and country this season, was only physically capable of being on the bench. However, even without their main man, Bayern managed to score quite a few goals.
Michael Olise netted a couple of goals while Serge Gnabry and Nicolas Jackson got one each, and also assisted their teammates’ goals. Josip Stanisic and Jamal Musiala also scored for the German giants. After such a huge victory on the road, Bayern look almost guaranteed to make it to the last eight.

In Madrid, Atletico Madrid took advantage of Tottenham Hotspur’s somewhat risky squad selection by coach Igor Tudor. Tudor decided to drop Tottenham’s main goalkeeper, Guglielmo Vicario, and instead, he put Antonin Kinsky, a player who was making his Champions League debut, in the starting lineup. The gamble backfired very fast. Kinsky was quite shaky right from the beginning, and it resulted in a goal by Marcos Llorente in the sixth minute. Soon after, Antoine Griezmann increased the lead to 2, 0 and yet another slip on the goalkeeper’s part allowed Julian Alvarez to score in an empty net. By 15 minutes, Atletico were already leading 3, 0 and at the end of the game, the score was 5- 2. Kinsky was taken off in the 17th minute after a very unfortunate debut. Tottenham later tried to make a comeback, but they are now in a very tough position for the second leg.

Lamine Yamal Saves Barcelona in the last minutes

Elsewhere, FC Barcelona nearly lost it at the very last breath as they shared an 11- 11 draw with Newcastle United. Newcastle was almost certain of its victory after Harvey Barnes netted in the 86th minute. However, Barcelona were awarded a late penalty after Malick Thiaw fouled Dani Olmo inside the box. The 18, year, old Lamine Yamal coolly sent the penalty in the 96th minute to pull a draw.

Another game between the two teams was in Istanbul, where Galatasaray SK secured an edge with a 1- 0 win over Liverpool. Mario Lemina got the winning goal off a header in the 7th minute. Galatasaray were the ones who knocked Juventus FC out in the playoffs, and now they have this thin lead going to the second leg at Anfield.

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