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The Round of 16 in this season’s UEFA Champions League is now over, and while everyone is waiting with bated breath for tomorrow’s quarter-final draw, it’s worth remembering just how insane the last two weeks’ worth of games in the competition have been.
This season’s Round of 16 has been as dramatic as any Champions League in recent memory, with a ton of results and incidents that nobody could’ve seen coming, particularly in the second legs. You could argue in fact that half of the ties didn’t go the way most people figured they would.
Here are 5 things that nobody expected to happen in the Round of 16.
#1 Manchester United beating Paris St. Germain – especially after the first leg
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When the draw for the Round of 16 was made in mid-December, nobody really gave Manchester United a shot at beating French giants Paris Saint-Germain. After all, United were still managed by Jose Mourinho and in the midst of some horrible form at that time – losing their final group game to Valencia – while PSG had flown through the group stage despite an opening loss to Liverpool.
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The appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had definitely righted the ship at United somewhat, but when the Red Devils were beaten 0-2 at Old Trafford by their French opponents, it felt like the tie was all but over. United would need at least 3 goals at the Parc des Princes to get through now, something that seemed basically impossible.
And yet somehow, they did it. A disastrous defensive mistake from Thilo Kehrer and a rare error from Gianluigi Buffon allowed Romelu Lukaku to put United into a 1-2 lead, canceling out Juan Bernat’s equalizer, but with minutes remaining the Red Devils still needed a third goal to get through the tie on the away goals rule.
Deep into added time, they found it. Diogo Dalot’s speculative shot appeared to strike the arm of PSG defender Presnel Kimpembe, and after a VAR check, the referee awarded a penalty – which Marcus Rashford coolly banged home. United had completed a comeback almost on the level of their legendary 1999 final win over Bayern Munich, and the football world was stunned by one of the biggest upsets in recent Champions League memory.
#2 Ronaldo inspiring Juventus to make a dramatic comeback against Atleti
Juventus probably went into the first leg of their Round of 16 tie with Atletico Madrid as favorites; after all, the Italian giants had made the semi-finals of the competition in 2017/18, the final in 2016/17, and they’d signed Cristiano Ronaldo to bolster their chances this year. Atletico meanwhile had stuttered in the group stages, losing 4-0 to Borussia Dortmund in a stunning result.
The first leg of the tie at the Wanda Metropolitano threw the idea of Juve as favorites out of the window, though. A tremendous performance from Diego Simeone’s men ended in a 2-0 victory, and given Atletico arguably have the best defence in Europe – they’ve conceded just 17 goals all season in La Liga – it seemed like mission impossible, even for Ronaldo, to get Juventus through the tie in the second leg.
And yet the Portuguese legend pulled it off, once again making the impossible seem ordinary. Playing almost as a target man against the rock-solid central defensive partnership of Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez, Ronaldo scored a pair of towering headers either side of half-time to draw the tie level. At that stage, it seemed almost inevitable that he would strike again, and sure enough, with 4 minutes on the clock, the outstanding Federico Bernardeschi was brought down in the area, and Ronaldo stepped up to dispatch the subsequent penalty.
It was Ronaldo’s 124th goal in the Champions League – his 63rd in the knockout stages – and completed his 8th hat-trick in the competition too. Nobody really comes close to his greatness in Europe at this point, and yet nobody really expected it to happen after that disastrous first leg.
#3 Tottenham smashing Dortmund to pieces
The Round of 16 tie between Tottenham Hotspur and Borussia Dortmund seemed like one of the tightest ones to call in this season’s Champions League; despite their group stage struggles, Tottenham could still call upon the talents of some of Europe’s most outstanding players, while Dortmund had been leading the Bundesliga from the start, scoring 61 goals along the way, and they’d also destroyed Atletico Madrid 4-0 in their game at the Westfalenstadion.
Nobody expected this tie to be one-sided destruction, and yet that’s exactly what we got. In a phenomenal performance in the first leg at Wembley, Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs simply swept their German opponents aside, scoring 3 goals in the second half to seemingly leave the tie all but over. All without Harry Kane, too, who was out with an ankle injury suffered in January.
Dortmund knew they needed to attack in the second leg at home, and with their fans creating a volcanic atmosphere, they threw everything they had at Tottenham in the first half. Somehow though, Spurs stood firm – and then to add insult to injury, managed to find a winner through the returning Kane midway through the second half.
Nobody expected Tottenham – who made it through to the knockout stages after picking up just 1 point from their first 3 group games – to blow away Lucien Favre’s side quite like that. The result was largely lost in the shuffle of the big wins by Ajax and Manchester United in the same week, but it was still a seismic one nonetheless.
#4 Ajax dumping Real Madrid out and causing a club crisis
While their form in the group stages – a pair of losses to CSKA Moscow blighted their record – it appeared to suggest things weren’t quite right at Real Madrid and nobody really expected them to be sent packing by Ajax in the Round of 16. After all, this was the same side – minus Cristiano Ronaldo of course – who had won the last 3 editions of the Champions League and who were arguably the best side to ever compete in Europe.
And yet across two dramatic legs, the impossible happened. Ajax were unfortunate to come away from the first leg at the Johan Cruyff Arena with a 1-2 loss, as the Dutch side appeared to be the better team and had a first-half goal chalked off due to VAR. But with two away goals in the bag for Real, the second leg felt like a formality. Sergio Ramos even took a tactical booking to rule him out of the second leg, allowing him to prepare for the Quarters.
It didn’t turn out to be the wisest decision. Inspired by an incredible performance from Dusan Tadic, Ajax simply destroyed Real on their own turf, as Los Blancos capitulated entirely, showing none of the steel they’d displayed so many times before in the Champions League. The game ended 1-4 and the tie 5-3 in favor of Ajax.
The result appeared to trigger a crisis inside Real – club President Florentino Perez reportedly had an angry confrontation with Ramos following the game, and less than a week later, boss Santiago Solari was fired and replaced by the man who walked away from the Bernabeu in the summer – Zinedine Zidane. In a competition full of unexpected events, this might’ve been the most unexpected of them all.
#5 Liverpool eliminating Bayern Munich by beating them in their own ground
Liverpool’s tie with Bayern Munich was arguably the closest one to call in the whole Round of 16, as the German side have been perennial contenders for the Champions League for what feels like forever now, while Jurgen Klopp’s Reds made the final last season. Liverpool’s patchy form in the group stages – they lost 3 games – perhaps gave Niko Kovac’s side a slight advantage.
A 0-0 first leg at Anfield meant that Bayern appeared to hold all the cards going into the second leg at the Allianz Arena, despite not picking up an all-important away goal. After all, the only team to beat Bayern at home in the past 4 editions of the Champions League had been Real Madrid, and both times that happened, Real had gone on to win the famous trophy.
Liverpool knew they only needed a score draw to go through though, and sure enough a Sadio Mane goal – from a rare error from keeper Manuel Neuer – put the Reds ahead in the first half. Bayern equalized through a Joel Matip own goal just 13 minutes later, however, and you’d have been forgiven for expecting Liverpool to simply sit back and play the draw out.
That’s clearly not Jurgen Klopp’s style, however, and his side continued to boss the game, eventually scoring 2 goals in the second half through Virgil Van Dijk and Mane to hand them a 1-3 victory. While Liverpool getting through the tie unscathed wasn’t a massive upset, to see them do it by defeating Bayern on home turf was something nobody expected going in – and could bode well for the Reds’ Champions League hopes.
