Uefa Champions League is the biggest club competition of football in the world. True to its nature, it churns out shocks and upsets every year and we see various giant killings and shocking comebacks every year. Some of the famous comebacks from last few years are such as the second leg comeback of Madrid against Wolfsberg, Barca’s famous second leg comeback against PSG and Roma’s sensational second leg comeback against Barcelona to name a few.. Let us take a look at how things are panning up this season..
Things were finely and interestingly poised after the first leg of the knockout round as we contemplated in one of our earlier articles. However the second legs have already produced some jaw dropping results. Ajax famously overturned a 1-2 deficit in first leg by a 4-1 victory over Madrid at Bernabeau. A star studded PSG side had a 2-0 lead over United in first leg at Old Trafford and for many, understandably, the second leg was merely a formality. But not for Ole and his boys, and they did the unthinkable by blowing off PSG in their own park at Paris,sending down chills through the spines of opposition teams in the process. PSG were one of the favourites and this new United suddenly reminded the footballing world the dread of the United of old. Every team must be wary of them now and they surely are now in the run for the coveted prize. A win of such nature is extremely boosting for the team moral and self belief and they must be aiming for the pinnacle now. They are also in a run of consecutive good performances and results in the league and though they had a blip yesterday after their loss to Arsenal, but it will hardly stall their momentum in UCL after their stunning victory at Paris.
These two results (Ajax and United) must have been extremely encouraging for Juventus who themselves are hoping to overturn their first leg 0-2 deficit. They now have the player in the squad who has previously done the same for Madrid against Wolfsberg and Juventus must be pinning their hopes on him to do it again. Given Atletico Madrid’s up and down form this season, it is likely and entirely plausible that Juventus might also accomplish a comeback in the second leg and it would be another feather in the cap of Cristiano if him and Juve does it again. Surely they must be well prepared to do it now having getting boosted from the results of both Ajax and United.
The tie between Liverpool and Bayern is finely poised and we can expect a great return leg. Else where Barcelona are in an extremely precarious position having lost Dembele to injury this weekend. Coutinho has been a major flop in La liga, the most expensive flop in football history to be precise, and hence Lyon must be very delighted and positive about their chances of forwarding to next round at the expense of barca. Without Dembele, Barcelona are an extremely slow side with Messi being the only spark and with the responsibility of both creating and scoring. Block Messi and entire Barca is blocked and Lyon will definitely have formed their plan based on the Roma second leg last year. This is paving towards being another disappointing UCL venture for Barca and the second leg against Lyon might add another giant killing to this edition of UCL.
All in all, this UCL is finely poised and having already provided with some fantastic shocks and comebacks, gear up for more in the coming future.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.