The “Royal” celebrated a 3-1 away win against Chelsea with David Alaba in the first leg of the quarter-finals, the match winner was triple goalscorer Karim Benzema. Outsiders Villarreal managed a surprising 1-0 home win over FC Bayern. The second leg will increase next Tuesday.London/Villarreal. Liverpool had already won 3-1 at Benfica Lisbon and Manchester City 1-0 against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday. At London’s Stamford Bridge, Real was the more dangerous team from the start – Vinicius junior hit the crossbar in the tenth minute. Defending champions Chelsea had little to offer for a long time apart from a free-kick from Reece James (15) saved by Thibaut Courtois (15), but the visitors could once again rely on Benzema.
In the 21st minute, the Frenchman initiated an attack with an outside instep pass to Vinicius junior himself and converted the Brazilian cross from around twelve meters with a powerful header into the short top corner. Three minutes later, Benzema headed in again, this time from a supine position following a Luka Modric cross.
Chelsea regained hope when Kai Havertz also headed in (40′), but then Benzema struck for the third time. A few seconds after the restart, Chelsea goalie Edouard Mendy played a bad pass to Antonio Rüdiger. The German team player, who had already received a yellow card, was no longer able to clear and Benzema rolled the ball into the empty goal (46′).
The 34-year-old had already scored a treble in Real’s home 3-1 win against Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16 second leg and now has eleven goals in eight matches this Champions League season. Chelsea then tried to turn the game around, but ex-“Blues” keeper Courtois made a strong save from a shot by Cesar Azpilicueta (50′) and a header from Romelu Lukaku flew just wide of the far post (69′). ). The Real defense around David Alaba could no longer be defeated, which is why the ÖFB team player celebrated his 70th victory in his 100th Champions League game – more than any other player in his first 100 appearances in the “premier class”. In front of Alaba, 44 kickers had broken the 100 mark.
The defender’s former club had no reason to celebrate as Bayern suffered a surprise but deserved defeat at Villarreal. The decisive goal came in the eighth minute – Gerard Moreno shot in the box and his shot was deflected into the goal by Arnaut Danjuma. In the 41st minute, Villarreal celebrated the supposed 2-0 lead after a shattered cross from Francis Coquelin sank into the goal. However, the Frenchman was just offside before that, so the goal was disallowed by the video assistant.
Bayern took more and more risks in the second half, but the Spaniards were more dangerous. Gerard Moreno hit the post in the 53rd minute and went just wide in the 62nd minute after Bayern goalie Manuel Neuer made a bad mistake. In the 87th minute, Alfonso Pedraza missed a few yards out. Marcel Sabitzer was on the bench for the Salzburg conqueror.
Source: Nachrichten
