English clubs ditched! ; As Messi mesmerises Man City
ALL of England’s Premir League clubs in this year’s Champions League have been eliminated with Manchester City the latest to join the list of ditched England clubs.
Advertisement
With Manchester United missing out, the responsibility had been on English champions, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool but they all fell along the way, particularly painful for Arsenal, who paid dearly for their 1-3 flop to Monaco in the first leg two weeks ago at the Emirates. Arsenal almost pulled the victory out of the blazing chestnut, with goals from Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey, sealing a 2-0 win in Monaco, but the 1-3 at the Emirates were their undoing, losing out on the away goals rile.
Man City knew it was an arduous task to overturn a 1-2 result from the first leg as they travelled to the Nou Camp last Wednesday and they ended up being beaten again by a 1-0 result.
An incredible performance from Joe Hart wasn't enough to prevent Barcelona cruising into the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the eighth consecutive season with a 1-0 win over Manchester City last Wednesday to seal a 3-1 aggregate victory.
Ivan Rakitic scored the only goal of the night after half an hour as he lofted home from a majestic Lionel Messi pass.
The English champions had their chances in the second half, but any hopes of an historic comeback were ended when Marc-Andre ter Stegen produced a stunning penalty save from Sergio Aguero 12 minutes from time.
However, it was his opposite number who was the star of the show as Hart time and again prevented Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez from piling on more agony for City.
Goal-scorer Alvaro Morata insists Juventus fear no-one in the draw for the Champions League's quarter-finals after their emphatic 3-0 win at Borussia Dortmund.
Other Trending Stories
Carlos Tevez scored twice as Juventus sealed a 5-1 win on aggregate in the last 16 tie as he and Morata, who had each scored in the 2-1 first-leg win, again did the damage in Dortmund.
Just as he had done in Turin, Tevez gave his side an early lead with a breath-taking strike to catch out the Dortmund defence.
The draw for the last eight will be conducted today. — Reuters/AFP