Courtois benefit performance in Liverpool and controversial penalty kick in Dortmund: how Real Madrid and Manchester City reached the Champions League semi-finals

Goalkeeper miracles and bad luck Liverpool

In recent years, memorable second leg comebacks have become commonplace in the Champions League.

Juventus and Monaco managed to win back a two-goal difference, Roma did not even prevent the defeat from Barcelona with a score of 1: 4 to advance to the next round, and the Catalans themselves made a phenomenal "remontage" in the confrontation with Paris Saint- Germain ", losing in the first game with a difference of four accurate hits.

Therefore, the chances of "Liverpool" to pass "Real", although they were not extremely high, but still there.

At least, for the reason that in 2019 the Lersisides have already demonstrated character when they knocked out the same “blaugrana” in the semifinals.

At the Camp Nou, Jurgen Klopp's charges conceded three unanswered goals, while at Anfield they answered with four.

Additional chances for Liverpool were given by the problems of Real Madrid with the defenders.

If a week ago the coronavirus left Rafael Varane out of the game, this time it hit Sergio Ramos.

Thus, holes in the center of defense gaped for both teams, but Madrid were deprived of at least any field for maneuver on the right edge.

The injury of Lucas Vasquez forced Zinedine Zidane to send the nominal defensive player Federico Valverde to the curb, who had never appeared in this position before.

And in the first half, it seemed that the hosts were really capable of performing another miracle at Anfield.

Already in the first half, Klopp's wards created a number of chances, but either colossal bad luck or Thibault Courtois's outstanding game prevented them from distinguishing themselves.

Already in the first minute, the Belgian did not allow Mohammed Salah to score from a lethal position, and then repulsed a powerful shot from James Milner from outside the penalty area.

At the end of the half, even the goalkeeper was powerless, but Sadio Mane did not have time to close the serve of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Not to say that Real did not answer at all, but in general, a much less tense atmosphere reigned at the gate of Liverpool.

The troublemaker was Karim Benzema, who in the 20th minute almost made a fool of not only the defenders, but also the goalkeeper of the Merseysiders.

The Frenchman's unhurried dribbling literally hypnotized Nathaniel Phillips and Ozan Kabak, and the kick turned out to be unbearable for Alison Becker, but the bar got in the way of the ball.

This allowed the Frenchman to become the season leader in terms of the number of hits in the frame among the representatives of La Liga (12), but this hardly made him happy.

In the second half, the course of the game did not change much.

The hosts attacked a lot, but in an hour they could not break through Courtois.

Klopp considered that the current selection of players had exhausted itself and proceeded to reshuffle.

The first to leave the field was James Milner, the oldest player in the Champions League playoffs with Liverpool since 1978 (35 years 100 days).

But if his replacement for Thiago Alcantara seemed commonplace, then the appearance of forward Diogo Jota instead of defender Kabak meant that the mentor was ready to go all-in.

However, neither Alcantara with Zhota, nor Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Djerdan Shaqiri could turn the tide of the unsuccessful match.

For all 90 minutes, "Liverpool" inflicted 14 shots on the opponent's goal, but not only could not make Courtois make a mistake, but also almost missed it himself.

Vinicius Junior, together with Benzema, could remove all questions about the winner, but the Brazilian lacked quickness.

The meeting ended in a goalless draw, which was enough for Real Madrid to advance to the next round of the Champions League playoffs.

Zidane has once again demonstrated that he has a unique ability to play the most important games, and Klopp was unable to save a bad season for Liverpool.

For a ticket to the final, the royal club will compete with Chelsea.

17-year-old Bellingham's goal and controversial penalty on Jan

Borussia was also in a situation similar to Liverpool, however, its entry into the next round seemed a much more unrealizable event.

Yet the opponents were not the weakened Real Madrid, but the formidable Manchester City, which won 27 of the last 29 meetings in all competitions.

The confidence in the strength of Josep Guardiola's charges was not diminished even by the recent misfire with Leeds, which was confirmed by the bookmakers' quotes.

Thus, the coefficient for the victory of the British was 1.34, and for the success of the Germans - 11.00.

The Spanish mentor himself understood that his players were considered clear favorites, and in fact said that they could only lose to themselves.

In this regard, his analogy with last year's meeting with Lyon was the best fit.

Then Guardiola himself was too clever with the arrangement, which was the reason for the sensational defeat in the Champions League quarterfinals.

This time, the specialist did without tactical delights, but this did not save his team from failure at the start.

Already in the 15th minute, Erling Holland burst into the opponent's penalty area and passed the ball to Ansgar Knauff.

The 19-year-old's kick was blocked, but Jude Bellingham was on the rebound.

He processed the first touch, and the second struck just under the crossbar of Ederson's goal.

Thus, the Englishman not only became the second youngest scorer in a Champions League playoff match in history (17 years 289 days), but also returned the favor for the last meeting, during which the referee deprived him of a goal in a controversial episode.

Then the goalkeeper of the "townspeople" hit him in the leg while trying to carry out, but the midfielder himself was found to have violated the rules.

A similar result led the hosts to the semifinals.

The guests, as expected, rushed forward and unleashed a flurry of attacks on the gates of Marvin Hitz, but in the first half, all attempts to level the score were in vain.

Kevin De Bruyne came closest to restoring parity, but his punch shook the bar.

As a result, during the first half, City only once bothered the Swiss goalkeeper.

Remarkably, the full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko did it.

Borussia held out until the 55th minute, when the referee Carlos del Cerro Grande put an ambiguous penalty against the hosts.

Emre Can tried to interrupt Phil Foden's serve from the flank and, it seems, even succeeded, but he treacherously hit him in the shoulder.

Following the IFAB rules, if an athlete tried to play by the rules and the ball ricochets into his hand from the head or other part of the body that is not prohibited for play, then a violation of the rules does not count.

However, the referee thought differently and pointed to the "point", and later did not even personally approach the monitor.

Apparently, the video assistant confidently stated that the midfielder did not get to the ball with his head.

Riyad Marez outplayed Hitz with difficulty and interrupted a dry streak of 14 Champions League meetings.

Finally, all the questions regarding the ticket to the semifinals were removed by the same Foden.

The quick play of the corner put the vigilance of the Dortmund players to sleep, completely forgetting about the Englishman who remained at the border of the penalty area.

He struck without resistance from his left foot and caught Hitz by surprise.

To reach the next stage of Borussia, it was necessary to score three goals in 15 minutes - an almost impossible task in the confrontation with the "townspeople".

In the last quarter of an hour, the miracle did not happen, and Manchester City confidently proceeded to the semi-finals of the Champions League, where they will play against Paris Saint-Germain.

At the same time, Pep Guardiola became only the second coach in history who managed to reach this stage of the tournament for the eighth time.

Previously, only Jose Mourinho could boast of such a thing.