Milan's goal in Madrid, PSG's failure in Manchester and Borussia's fiasco in Lisbon: how the 5th round of the Champions League ended

Jesus' key role

The fans were looking forward to the central match of the day between Manchester City and PSG with great interest.

It seemed that such a sign would guarantee an exciting confrontation.

However, in reality, the fight at Etihad did not work out, and the hosts calmly took revenge for the defeat in Paris, although they conceded first - 2: 1.

Before the break, Josep Guardiola's wards had an overwhelming advantage at all and miraculously did not open an account.

In a number of episodes, Keylor Navas saved the guests, and when the Costa Rican was powerless after Ilkay Gundogan's shot, the bar came to the rescue.

But at the very beginning of the second half, the French team scored a goal that did not follow from the logic of the game.

A quick counterattack ended with Lionel Messi's cross at Kilian Mbappa, who sent a shell between Ederson's legs.

But as soon as the "townspeople" let it go, they instantly increased their momentum and achieved their goal.

First, Raheem Sterling, after a cross from the front and Gabriel Jesus' discount, just shot into the near corner with a rebound from the bar.

The 23-goal striker is now tied with Frank Lampard as the top scorer of the tournament with 23 goals, behind only Wayne Rooney (30) and Paul Scholes (24).

Well, the Brazilian himself put an end to the match.

So "Manchester City" for the fifth time in a row reached the Champions League playoffs from the first place in the group.

PSG, on the other hand, secured the second thanks to the crushing defeat of Brugge at Leipzig.

Messias's amazing debut

Milan found itself in an extremely difficult position. In the first four rounds, the Italian team scored only a point. But despite this, she retained the chances of getting into the playoffs. To do this, it was necessary to beat Atlético away and hope for Porto's misfire in the confrontation with Liverpool. The extremely motivated Rossoneri seized the initiative from the first minutes, but they rarely created chances at the front gate. After the break, the pressure of the guests increased, and Stefano Pioli threw all his strength into the battle, including the 40-year-old Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had recovered from an injury.

But it was not the Swedish veteran who was destined to become the hero, but the modest Brazilian Junior Messias, who made his Serie A debut only last season. But due to damage on the field, he almost did not appear. However, in Madrid, the headquarters released it too. And the Latin American scored a key goal in the first meeting in the main European Cup in the 87th minute. After serving from the flank, he sent the ball into the net with his head. Celebrating the goal, Messias could hardly hold back his tears, because only two years ago he played in the third-strongest Italian division and did not even think about the Champions League.

In a parallel meeting, Porto expectedly lost to Liverpool - 0: 2.

Thus, for the round to the finish in Quartet B, the Portuguese team, with five points, and Milan and Atlético, with four points each, are claiming second place.

Moreover, the Rossoneri will have to accept the unmotivated English team, and Porto - the grand from Madrid.

Aller's Bombardier Records

Apart from Liverpool and Bayern, Ajax has no losses in the group stage.

Even after the last round, the Amsterdamites guaranteed themselves getting into the playoffs, and therefore Eric ten Hag in the away meeting with the outsider "Besiktas" allowed himself to leave the top scorer of the team, Sebastien Aller, in reserve.

The guests paid for it immediately.

In the first half, they could not translate the advantage into goals.

The hosts, on the other hand, earned and converted the penalty.

However, the appearance on the field of the Ivorian after the break immediately bore fruit.

In the 45 minutes allotted to him, the forward scored a double and turned the tide of the confrontation.

Moreover, both of his balls turned out to be workers.

First, the striker struck an empty net after the transfer of Nicolas Tagliafico, and then sent a shell on target from the goalkeeper's line, opening on the verge of offside.

In the time added by the referee, the joker scored for the third time, but the line judge raised the flag.

Aller was noted along the way with a couple of statistical achievements.

For example, he is the only footballer in history to score nine goals in the first five matches in the Champions League and the fourth to score in five consecutive debut matches in the main European Cup.

Sebastien caught up with Robert Lewandowski himself in the scorer race.

Also in the "Ajax" it is necessary to mention André Onana.

The Cameroonian served a nine-month suspension for the discovery of the illegal drug furosemide in his body and played the first game since the end of January.

Gonçalves' fateful take

Group C as a whole gave the fans a lot of surprises.

At the end of the draw, many assumed that Borussia Dortmund would take first place.

Two victories at the start confirmed the correctness of these predictions.

However, as soon as the yellow-blacks lost Erling Holland due to injury, they lost all their power.

The German team suffered two defeats from Ajax with a humiliating total score of 1: 7 and was forced to actually play in the junction with Sporting for the second place, and on the territory of the opponent.

But the charges of Marco Rose were not able to get together even at the decisive moment - 1: 3.

Although they played the first number and often shot on goal, they themselves made fateful mistakes.

For example, after half an hour, Nico Schultz waved past the ball and allowed Pedro Gonçalves to go one-on-one.

And then the midfielder took advantage of a successful rebound from the opponent and scored a double with a beautiful long-range shot.

If Borussia lost the leader, the opponent, on the contrary, gained him.

Without Gonçalves, the Lisbonians did not score a point, with him they won three victories in a row.

He himself scored four goals and provided an assist.

Moreover, in the end, the 23-year-old winger could have scored a hat-trick, but missed the penalty.

However, it is unlikely that this greatly upset the players of Sporting, which for the first time since 2008 reached the 1/8 finals of the Champions League.

Dortmund will be Zenit's company in the Europa League playoffs.

Benzema's next goal

Will continue to play in the second most important European Cup and "Sheriff".

The champion of Moldova secured at least third place even before the start of his match with Real Madrid thanks to the defeat of Shakhtar by Inter.

But in order to preserve the opportunity to continue the fight in the Champions League, it was necessary to take points from Madrid again.

This time, the miracle did not happen.

The guests in the class scored three unanswered goals into the gates of a modest opponent.

The hosts kept their goal intact for half an hour, until David Alaba opened the score with a free-kick.

Then, in the time added by the referee to the first half, Toni Kroos scored.

And right after the break, Karim Benzema extended his winning streak in the tournament.

To the credit of the Tiraspol people, they did not park the "bus" in their own penalty area, but tried to act with the grandee on a collision course and struck 12 shots at Thibaut Courtois's goal.

The team of Yuri Vernidub could well have scored the ball of prestige, but luck did not accompany him that evening.

For example, Sebastian Thiel hit the post from close range.

One way or another, “Sheriff”, although it suffered three defeats in a row from “Inter” and “Real” with a total score of 2: 9, proved to be quite worthy.

For the first time in history, a representative of Moldova made his way to the spring stage of European competition.

And if you consider that the Tiraspol team started from the first qualifying round of the Champions League, this achievement is doubly significant.