Barcelona and Bayern Munich earned their places in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League as the final two sides emerging from the last 16 round thanks to aggregate victories over Arsenal and Juventus respectively.
Juventus would have surprised many pundits with their sterling performance on Wednesday night away to German champions Bayern Munich, disregarding a 2-2 first leg result and going for the win in the all important second leg, but defensive mistakes would catch up with them in the end.
An early goal from Paul Pogba gave Juve great confidence, which they added to with a strike from Juan Cuadrado in the 28th minute.
A late fightback from the home team would shake things up, however, as Robert Lewandowski’s excellent 73rd minute header would be followed by another brilliant header in the dying minutes of the game, as Thomas Mueller popped up to equalise and send the game into extra time.
The extra 30 minutes would favour the home team, and yet another defensive frailty from Juve allowed Thiago Alcantara to make the most of a poor clearance to finish low past Gianluigi Buffon for a 3-2 lead, which was followed minutes later by an excellent run and strike from former Juve player Kingsley Coman, making it 4-2 to the German club.
The minutes ticked by and Juventus would live to regret earlier chances during regulation time which they did not convert, as the Turin club return home, as Bayern Munich progress to the quarter-final stage.
As many would have predicted, Barcelona would not be knocked out of the tournament that they are favourites to win, and instead Arsenal would be removed from the Champions League at the expense of the Catalans.
The Blaugrana found the breakthrough on 18 minutes, as poor play from Arsenal defender Gabriel gifted Luis Suarez the ball, and he passed through to Neymar for a simple finish that is the Brazilian’s bread and butter.
Arsenal would find some hope in the second half, as an excellent finish from Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Elneny found the back of the net to put things level on the night, but a 2-0 defeat in the first leg loomed large over the Gunners, and the belief that they could turn things around soon changed to despair, as a stunning Suarez volley put the home side back in front.
Lionel Messi would make it 3-1 with a typical piece of technical skill that only the Argentinian striker could make look so easy. A flick over Ospina in the Arsenal goal killed off any hope that the Gunners had, and an aggregate 5-1 victory sent Barca on to the quarter-finals of the competition.
