It’s Champions League season for both men’s and women’s soccer! Fans from all over the world are pumped, ready to cheer on their team as they fight to move on in this prestigious tournament. The latest games on the men’s side in the Round of 16 were March 12 including LOSC vs Dortmund, Aston Villa vs Club Brugge, Arsenal vs PSV, and Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid. In the women’s world, the latest matchups were in the quarter final with Real Madrid vs Arsenal, Bayern vs Lyon, Wolfsburg vs Barcelona, and Manchester City vs Chelsea. These games took place on March 18 and 19.
To start, in the Dortmund vs LOSC matchup, Jonathan David scored in the 5th minute for LOSC with Dortmund only pulling ahead in the second half. Goals for Dortmund were scored by Emre Can in the 54th minute from a penalty and Maximillian Beier scored in the 65th minute to seal the win. All the stats were pretty even between both teams with each connecting more than 430 passes. The aggregate is now LOSC 2- Dortmund 3.
In Aston Villa’s matchup with Club Brugge, Villa pulled away with a clean sheet in a 3-0 win. Goals for Villa were scored by Marco Asensio in the 50th and 61st minute and Ian Maatsen put himself on the scoresheet in the 57th minute. Stats were nowhere near close between the teams as Villa overcame Brugge with 543 passes-470. On top of the complete blowout, Kyriani Sabbe got a red card and was sent off in the 16th minute. The aggregate is now Aston Villa 6- Club Brugge 1.
The third matchup that happened was Arsenal vs PSV. The game ended in a tie with goals scored by Oleksandr Zinchenko in the 6th minute and Declan Rice in the 37th minute for Arsenal while Ivan Perisic scored in the 18th minute and Couhaib Driouech scored in the 70th minute for PSV to secure the tie. The stats were mostly even with 485 completed passes for Arsenal and 466 passes for PSV. Arsenal in the aggregate leads 9-3.
The final matchup for the day was Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid. The game ended 1-0 for Atletico but Real won 4-2 on penalties due to the aggregate ending in a 2-2 tie. Atletico opened with a bang as Conor Gallagher scored in the 1st minute. The scoreline was honestly shocking as Real led in possession, passes, and passing accuracy. While Real came out with the aggregate win due to the penalties, it was a shocker for their fans.
In the women’s game, the first 2 games were played on March 18. The matchups were Real Madrid vs Arsenal and Bayern vs Lyon.
In the Real Madrid vs Arsenal game, Linda Caicedo scored in the 22nd minute and Athenea del Castillo scored in the 82nd minute to seal the win for Real. Arsenal, while putting up a good game, did not manage to score. However they beat out Madrid in stats in terms of shots, possession, passes, and pass accuracy. Real now leads in the aggregate 2-0.
The second game to take place on the 18th was between Bayern and Lyon. Lyon were the team to beat in this matchup as they came out with a 2-0 win. Tabitha Chawinga scored in the 35th minute and Melchie Dumornay scored in the 65th. Lyon led in all of stats including but not limited to, shots, shots on target, possession, passes, and more. In the aggregate Lyon leads 2-0.
The next women’s games took place on March 19 with games played between Wolfsburg vs Barcelona and Manchester City vs Chelsea.
In the first game, Wolfsburg played Barcelona ending in a 4-1 win for Barcelona. For Barca, goals were scored by Caitlin Dijkstra (Own Goal) in the 26th minute, Irene Paredes in the 50th, Salma Paralluelo in the 53rd, and Sydney Schertenleib in the 88th. For Wolfsburg, Janina Minge managed to score in the 79th minute but not before Barca was up by 3. With the amazing scoreline for Barcelona, they dominated in all stats and Wolfsburg was nowhere close in contending. Barcelona now leads in the aggregate 4-1.
The second and last game might as well been Viv Miedema’s best game since moving to Man City this past season. Man City ended powerhouse Chelsea’s undefeated season in a 2-0 win with both goals scored by the dutch superstar found in Miedema. Goals were scored both later in the second half in the the 60th minute and 88th minute. Chelsea overall did better by the stats and are still undefeated in the regular season. Chelsea plays Man City again but the aggregate is 2-0 for City.
The next upcoming games for Men are Bayern vs Inter and Arsenal vs Real Madrid on April 8th, and Barcelona vs Dortmund and PSG vs Aston Villa on April 9th. For women, the upcoming games are Lyon vs Bayern and Arsenal vs Real Madrid on March 26, and Barcelona vs Wolfsburg and Chelsea vs Manchester City on March 27th.
