The Champions League this week wasn’t very good, but to be honest, that was clearly coming. The games at the start of the week seemed uninteresting and for the most part, they turned out to be. It’s a crying shame that Europe’s elite competition has turned into what it has, but how anyone could genuinely be excited for games where a Qatari-backed side were quite clearly going to beat a likeable Basque side, a UAE-backed side were quite clearly going to beat a Danish side, and a game between two sides trying to destroy football in their own way is beyond me. That’s three of the four Champions League games covered in the intro, the other one was bad for other reasons away from the pitch, but that doesn’t mean all of European football is bad. By contrast, there were a few standout fixtures in the Europa League and Europa Conference League, and we’ll be talking about two of them in this article, alongside the second legs of two of the Champions League’s Round of 16.
Bayern 3-0 Lazio (3-1 aggregate) – Champions League Round of 16
It was hard to know what to make of Bayern before this game. On the one hand, they did have an on-paper superiority to their Italian guests, on the other, they lost in Rome for a reason. However, Bayern qualified and did so in style. Lazio didn’t even have a shot on target in the second leg, much like the Germans in the first. The Bavarians eventually took the lead in the game and series with two in the space of nine minutes, Harry Kane heading in the first and Thomas Müller turning in a Matthijs de Ligt volley. The rapport between Kane and Müller is clear to see, the latter describing the relationship after the game as ‘jogo bonito,’ which feels less inaccurate the more you think about it. Lazio felt defeated at that point, even if they had ever managed a shot on target. That was definitely the case when Harry Kane scored a second to continue his great goalscoring form and end the game. There’s nothing to fault from a Bayern perspective, and it’s the first time we’ve been able to say that in quite a while. That even goes down to management as well, Thomas Tuchel coached the side well and even reportedly broke his toe in trying to motivate them before the game. You do what you have to when trying to get the team on board, Tuchel did, Bayern did, and that’s why they advance.
We should unfortunately mention that the game did have a sour note to it, Lazio fans have been known for their fascism in the past and this game was no different, some fans who travelled to Bavaria were filmed making fascist chants and salutes, including in the location where Adolf Hitler held the first major meeting of the Nazi Party. This felt inevitable and it’s a real shame that the worst part of football showed itself once more.
Real Madrid 1-1 Leipzig (2-1 aggregate) – Champions League Round of 16
The super league side versus one of the many pushing multi-club ownership, not the greatest for the fan of authenticity. It was the record champions of the competition who went through though on the back of a game in Germany where they arguably shouldn’t have won. Once again Leipzig were the better side in this game and would have won if they had taken a plethora of amazing chances through the first half. Speaking on CBS’ coverage of the game, Thierry Henry said that the Bernabeu had got to the Leipzig players and that did feel like the case. When the first goal of the game did finally come, it was for the hosts as former Dortmund man Jude Bellingham played the ball through to Vinicius Jr to slot in. It was that goal that temporarily woke Leipzig up, Willi Orban would head in to make it 1-1 on the night three minutes later, but they never got their second despite, once again, being the better side.
There are two reasons Leipzig failed to win this series, one was their inability to convert the chances they created. You could reasonably argue that Leipzig were the better side in both games and created the better of the chances over the two legs, but didn’t convert. There is another reason though, referees. I personally find it beyond laughable when Real Madrid fans suggest there is some conspiracy from referees against their club, they are one of the biggest beneficiaries of bias in the game whether coincidence or something else. We saw that in the first leg with Benjamin Šeško’s goal being disallowed incorrectly for offside, which should be impossible in the VAR era. This time it was a clear red card that was ignored, Vinicius Jr first deliberately elbowed Willi Orban in the back, which was one clear red card, and then had the audacity to push Orban a second time whilst clearly trying to grab him by the throat, which should have been another red. Instead, Italian referee Davide Massa reached for a yellow, which is impossible to explain. That was before the Brazilian scored for which he objectively shouldn’t have been on the pitch.
It leaves a bitter note for Leipzig, who missed their chance to record a landmark victory against arguably the biggest club in the world, it’s also a warning for Real Madrid. With respect, Leipzig are not the best club in Europe, they’ll have to play a lot better if they want to progress to the final and win Champions League #15 … unless they have the refs on their side again.
Qarabağ Ağdam 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen – Europa League Round of 16
This is the closest Bayer Leverkusen have come to losing their undefeated streak this season. With all due respect to Qarabağ, Bayer Leverkusen had already beaten them twice in the group stage and there was no reason to expect that to change. At the end of the first half, Qarabağ led 2-0. Yassine Benzia rounded off a quick break that came in a period of the game where Qarabağ completely ran over Leverkusen, the second coming from Juninho (not to be confused with the Lyon legend) in first half-added time on the counter attack. I nearly choked on my drink at that point, much like Leverkusen were choking through the game. It’s hard to stress just how much better Qarabağ were in the first half than Leverkusen, but they were arguably better in this game (up to that point) than Bayer were in their 5-1 win against the same side back in October. Xabi Alonso though got Leverkusen to wake up in the second half and they were immediately better through the rest of the game. Not enough at first to get the breakthrough, every save was celebrated by the Azerbaijani crowd like a goal normally is. That was until the 70th minute, Florian Wirtz got one back, but only because of a mindboggling mistake from Abdellah Zoubir that could only be toppled by Darmstadt this weekend against Augsburg. Still, it didn’t look like it was going to be enough, the hosts were actually pushing and were the better side. However, in the 92nd minute, Leverkusen would get a somewhat undeserved equaliser when Patrick Schick headed in a Robert Andrich cross.
Leverkusen’s undefeated streak stays alive, but Qarabağ deserved more from this game. The fans at the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium in Baku should be praised for being a 12th, 13th, and 14th man, and any suggestion that the second leg will result in an inevitable Leverkusen win needs to be thrown away now. The biggest questions are how Xabi Alonso approaches the game and whether Qarabağ’s mentality is shot after being 2-0 up and losing that lead late on. Qarabağ might not have won the battle, but they can still win the war.
Freiburg 1-0 West Ham – Europa League Round of 16
Another game between two sides who faced off in the group stage, another where one side had won both of those games. Once again though third time was the charm as Freiburg got what could be a vital win against the Hammers. Substitute Michael Gregortisch would score the only goal of the game after a great ground cross from Roland Sallai. That reflected a match where chances were minimal, but Freiburg were probably just about the better of the two. The game did go on for longer than we expected, just past the fourth and final minute of second-half added time, West Ham appealed for a penalty against Noah Weißhaupt. VAR took four minutes to review, but perfectly named referee Hernández Hernández eventually ruled that it wasn’t which I agree with. It sets up an interesting match in London, Freiburg clearly have the ability to go up against West Ham, but as Matthias Ginter correctly said after the game, the Breisgauers have about a fifty-fifty chance of making it to the quarter-finals.
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