The Champions League threw up a few surprising results in the first leg of the quarterfinals last week. As a result, the second leg should be quite interesting as eight teams battle it out for a place in the semis of Europe's elite competition.
Tuesday's matches will see two interesting ties â€" Manchester City vs PSG and Real Madrid vs Wolfsburg. While Manchester City have a slight advantage over PSG after their first leg in Paris, Real Madrid have a mountain to climb after going down to the Bundesliga side in Germany.
Manchester City played pretty well, showing character and fight that have eluded them so often in the Champions League, to hold PSG to a 2-2 draw. Having taken the lead through Kevin De Bruyne, seven minutes before halftime, City threw away the advantage by allowing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to take advantage of a defensive mistake by Fernando.
It looked like PSG would take an advantage into the second leg when Adrien Rabiot scored a minute before the hour, but Fernandinho made it 2-2 on 72 minutes to give Manchester City a really good chance of qualifying for the semifinals of the Champions League.
The second quarterfinal of the same night did not go as many expected, as Wolfsburg blitzed Real Madrid with two first half goals, before holding out to take a 2-0 lead to the Bernabeu. While Real Madrid are quite capable of finding a way past Wolfsburg in the second leg, they will know the importance of not conceding a goal.
If Wolfsburg score in the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, it will mean Real Madrid will have to put at least four past the German side to stand any chance of qualifying for the semifinal.
The two quarterfinal matches on Wednesday are quite nicely poised, with Atletico Madrid looking to overcome Barcelona at the Vicente Calderon, while Bayern Munich will want to knock Benfica out.
In what was a fractious match, Barcelona came away with a 2-1 victory from the Camp Nou, with the match turning when Fernando Torres, who had put Atletico Madrid in the lead, received a red card. Luis Suarez, who was lucky to stay on the pitch after a couple of transgressions, scored a brace to give Barca the win and the advantage going into the second leg.
Atletico, however, will fancy their chances, considering Barcelona are not in the greatest of forms at the moment, having suffered consecutive defeats in the La Liga.
The final quarterfinal will be Benfica vs Bayern Munich, with Pep Guardiola's men holding a slender 1-0 lead. Arturo Vidal scored the only goal of the first leg in Munich, but Bayern will know they cannot afford to take their foot off the pedal, if they are to survive the Benfica test.
Champions League quarterfinals second leg schedule:
Manchester City vs Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) schedule:
Date: Tuesday, April 12.
Time: 8.45 p.m. CET (12.15 a.m. IST, 7.45 p.m. BST, 2.45 p.m. ET).
Venue: Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
Real Madrid vs Wolfsburg schedule:
Date: Tuesday, April 12.
Time: 8.45 p.m. CET (12.15 a.m. IST, 7.45 p.m. BST, 2.45 p.m. ET).
Venue: Bernabeu in Madrid.
Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona schedule:
Date: Wednesday, April 13.
Time: 8.45 p.m. CET (12.15 a.m. IST, 7.45 p.m. BST, 2.45 p.m. ET).
Venue: Vicente Calderon in Madrid.
Benfica vs Bayern Munich schedule:
Date: Wednesday, April 13.
Time: 8.45 p.m. CET (12.15 a.m. IST, 7.45 p.m. BST, 2.45 p.m. ET).
Venue: Estadio da Luz in Lisbon.
TV listings: India: Ten 1, Ten 1 HD, Ten 2 and Ten 3. UK: BT Sport. USA: Fox Sports. Canada: TSN. China: QQ Sports and PPTV. Germany: Sky Sport. Portugal: RTP and Sport TV. Spain, France, Thailand, Indonesia, Middle East, North Africa and Australia: Bein Sports. South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa: SuperSport.
