Barcelona, ​​Atlético Madrid, Lazio and Dortmund reached the 1/8 finals of the Champions League

The next participants in the playoffs have been determined in the football Champions League. A place in the 1/8 finals based on the results of the first day of the fifth round of the group stage was secured by Barcelona, ​​Atletico Madrid, Lazio of Rome and Borussia Dortmund, which convincingly beat Milan on a foreign field – 3:1. In turn, Parisian PSG, which looked like the favorite in Group F, failed to beat Newcastle again.

The next participants in the playoffs have been determined in the football Champions League. A place in the 1/8 finals based on the results of the first day of the fifth round of the group stage was secured by Barcelona, ​​Atletico Madrid, Lazio of Rome and Borussia Dortmund, which convincingly beat Milan on a foreign field – 3:1. In turn, Parisian PSG, which looked like the favorite in Group F, failed to beat Newcastle again.

Extremely confusing situation in group F, which was called the “group of death” even before the draw, implied that both matches of the fifth round would be of great importance from the point of view of the final distribution of places. And one of them brought Borussia Dortmund into the play-offs, which, unexpectedly for many, beat Milan on the road – 3:1. Having opened the scoring with a penalty and allowing the hosts to level it towards the end of the first half, the visitors, through the efforts of English midfielder Jamie Bynoe-Gittens and German striker Karim Adeyemi, scored two more goals after the break, securing their club a place in the last 16.

At the same time, PSG hosted Newcastle in Paris. Many expected that in this meeting the French champion would be able to take convincing revenge for his defeat in the second round 1:4, but instead he almost suffered a second defeat from the middle peasants of the English championship. In the middle of the first half, PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnaruma made a mistake; after Miguel Almiron’s shot, he parried the ball directly in front of him, allowing Alexander Isak to hit the empty net. The Parisians attacked a lot and were close to leveling the score several times in the first half, but Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope was on the spot, and on several occasions they were unlucky. Only in the 8th minute of stoppage time did Kylian Mbappe convert the penalty awarded for a clearly unintentional but obvious handball by visiting defender Tino Livramento.

The result is 1:1, which means that before the last round, in which Borussia will play at home with PSG and Newcastle will meet with Milan, Borussia has 11 points, PSG has 7, and Newcastle and Milan – 5 each. At the same time, the Italian club, theoretically still capable of rising to second place, has the worst goal difference (3:7), which complicates its already difficult task.

Meanwhile, both participants in the 1/8 finals have been determined Group E. There, the Roman “Lazio”, thanks to a double by its main scorer Ciro Immobile, scored at the end of the meeting within three minutes, beat the Scottish “Celtic” at home – 2:0, and Atletico Madrid beat the Dutch “Feyenoord” on the road with a score of 3:1. . In the last round, Atlético, which has 11 points, will compete in the match for first place at home with Lazio, who scored a point less, and third place is guaranteed to Feyenoord, who earned 6 points, which will not be prevented from moving to the Europa League even possible away defeat to Celtic with 1 point.

In Group H, Ukrainian Shakhtar, thanks to a goal scored early in the match by defender Nikolai Matvienko, beat the scoreless Belgian Antwerp – 1:0, and Barcelona, ​​having conceded first, beat Porto at home – 2:1.

This means that before the sixth round, in which Antwerp will host Barcelona and Porto will host Shakhtar, the Spanish club has secured one spot in the 1/8 finals with 12 points, and the second team will compete for the other. results of the previous championship of Portugal and the current champion of Ukraine, having 9 points each.

In group G, where Manchester City and Leipzig secured access to the play-offs two more rounds before the end, an unexpected result was almost recorded in the match between these two clubs. The German team scored two goals before the break, but failed in defense in the second half, and the English champion achieved victory – 3:2. The Swiss Young Boys, in turn, beat the Serbian Red Star at home – 2:0. Thus, Manchester City has 15 points, Leipzig – 9, Young Boys – 4, Red Star – 1.

Evgeniy Fedyakov