After Arsenal on Tuesday, it was the turn of Manchester City to become the second English side to face elimination from this year’s Champions League. On Wednesday March 12, 2014, City had an away game in the bastions of FCB at Camp Nou, where 86,000 Barca fans were vociferous in their support for their heroes. Barca won 2-1 in the return leg match to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory over Manchester City and recorded their seventh straight quarterfinal entry in the UEFA Champions League. FC Barcelona are also four-time winners of the League, though they have not had a great season this year. In the Spanish League, they have slipped to the third place behind Real Madrid and Atletico. In the other round-of-16 home game on Thursday, Paris Saint Germain defeated Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen 2-1. Since PSG had the first leg lead of 4-0, they became the fourth team to enter the last 8 of this season’s Champions League with an aggregate score of 6-1.
In the French capital’s Parc des Princes stadium, Paris St. Germain played their home leg return match against the German club Bayern Leverkusen on March 12, 2014. Just when home supporters thought of a cake-walk into the quarters for PSG, Leverkusen went ahead in the 6th minute. It was class goal produced by efforts from captain Simon Rolfes, Castro and Donati. Rolfes poked a ball from left to the edge of the box for Castro, who sent it to Donati on the right. Donati swung a great cross to Sidney Sam, who headed it in while going down on his knees in a slide. In the 13th minute, Zlatan Ibrahimovic looked like scoring but his shot was pushed out by Leno and a fruitful corner accrued. The floater was headed in by Marquinhos, before the Leverkusen keeper could realize what happened. In the 28th minute, Leverkusen won a penalty, when Jallet pulled Eren Derdiyok’s jersey to prevent him from running into the penalty area. Jallet was shown a yellow card and Simon Rolfes put the ball to take the spot kick. But PSG goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu affected a great save. The scores were level at half time. In the 53rd minute, Lucas Digne ran down on the left flank and sent a pass near the feet of Ezequiel Lavezzi, who drove home without making any mistake. PSG won the match 2-1 and with an impressive aggregate of 6-1 entered the quarterfinals.
On Tuesday March 18, Chelsea FC meets Galatasaray and Real Madrid plays FC Schalke 04 and the results will decide two more teams for the quarterfinal. The line-up will be completed on Wednesday March 19, when Olympiacos FC takes on Manchester United at Old Trafford and Borussia Dortmund plays with the Russian club FC Zenit.