Real Madrid and Manchester City are into the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, joining PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Porto and Liverpool. Both Los Blancos and City had no trouble getting through their ties on Tuesday, as Real beat Atalanta 3-1 (4-1 on aggregate), while the English club won 2-0 (4-0).
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday's action:
Real Madrid vs. Atalanta was over in first half
Atalanta are known as a team that can produce like crazy in front of goal, regularly scoring three or four times. But their 180 minutes against Los Blancos will be remembered for more mistakes than goals.
In the first leg you had the red card to Remo Freuler and the defense failing to close down on Ferland Mendy.
In the second leg, it was more of the same. From the error by goalkeeper Marco Sportiello to Rafael Toloi conceding a silly penalty kick, they took themselves out of position to compete. They'll also not want to see the highlights, realizing how they served up this tie on a silver platter to the Spanish giants.
If you want to see how the knockout stage went for them, just watch this error that led to the goal from Karim Benzema:
Benzema the hero and deserving of more praise
Our Jamie Carragher was right in the pre-game showing that Benzema deserves a whole lot more praise than he gets. His versatility, and the way he has assumed the star attacker role since Cristiano Ronaldo left has been nothing short of spectacular.
The fifth best scorer in Champions League history behind Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Raul and Roberto Lewandowski, he certainly should be mentioned alongside Raul and Lewandowski at least. He has been a consistent scorer, he's started four Champions League finals and won them all, and he is the reason why Real are through. Without him, they go from good to not all that much above average.
He'll continue to be key moving forward, but his ability to find his teammates in attack, in addition to his scoring, means Real will have a chance against anybody.
Gladbach start cemented result for Manchester City
Gladbach and Atalanta were both viewed as two teams with attacking power that could pull off some shockers in the round of 16. Little did we know they would do just that, though it was shockingly bad.
Gladbach never stood a chance in the second leg, as City recorded a whopping 719 passes more than the German side across the 180 minutes. The two goals in the first leg, and the superior possession, carried over to the second game as City steamrolled the hapless Foals.
Now, we can say that Marco Rose's impending departure to Borussia Dortmund might have impacted the team's mental focus, but they could have had Pep Guardiola and Joachim Low over there and it wouldn't have been enough. Their defense was thoroughly outclassed, the attack was never able to play the key ball into space, and they deservedly exit the tournament after an underwhelming 180 minutes to match their form in Germany, where they haven't won a Bundesliga game since Jan. 22.
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March 17, 2021 at 05:13AM
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Champions League takeaways: Modric fantastic, Atalanta filled with errors and never in doubt for Man City - CBS Sports
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