UEFA Champions League action on Tuesday night produced two goalless stalemates, but both home teams managed to progress to the quarter-finals of the competition on aggregate in the case of Manchester City, and through a penalty shootout victory for Atletico Madrid.
PSV and Atletico Madrid failed to score in their first leg in Holland a few weeks back, and both teams were aware of the open nature of the second leg, but neither managed to score during 120 minutes, and the fate of the two teams went down to the lottery of spot kicks.
The goalkeepers made great saves on both ends of the pitch to ensure the goalless draw, but they would not have the same fortune during the shootout.
Incredibly, the takers for both teams were in excellent penalty shootout form, scoring all of the first 14 kicks, before PSV substitute Luciano Narsingh had the misfortune of hitting the bar.
This meant that Juanfran was able to score the winning penalty that sent the Spanish club through to the quarter-finals of Europe’s flagship competition.
Despite an excellent 3-1 away victory for Manchester City against Dynamo Kyiv in the first leg in Ukraine, the Citizens produced little in their home encounter, managing to progress to the next round of the tournament for the first time with a 3-1 aggregate due to a goalless stalemate on Tuesday night.
The three away goals and home advantage gave Manchester City a great sense of confidence.
This translated into the ability to field a few players that would not typically feature in the starting eleven, but the Ukrainian opponents were not able to take advantage and take anything from their trip to Manchester.
Yaya Toure’s English club will now be keen to see who they are drawn against in Friday’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final draw.
