Podcast: Thrilling opening night as Lukaku & Lewandowski shine

On a night where it was all to play for across Europe, Madrid and Bayern secured their spots in the final four of the UEFA Champions League. Nothing could separate Manchester City and Real Madrid after 120 minutes of football, with the match finishing 1-1, 4-4 on aggregate. Andriy Lunin was then the hero in the penalty shoot-out, saving two spot kicks as Los Blancos progressed. In Germany, a solitary Joshua Kimmich goal was enough to secure a 1-0 win for Bayern on the night against Arsenal, and a 3-2 victory overall in the tie. It’s now the 13th time Bayern have reached the Champions League semi-finals. We hear from all the key players, including Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Kane from a jubilant Bayern camp and disappointed Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.

The quarter-final second legs picked up where the first legs left off with two pulsating drama-filled ties. In Spain, Paris recovered from a goal down to stun 10 man Barcelona 4-1 on the night, and 6-4 on aggregate, in what was yet another action packed encounter between the two sides. Second half goals from Vitinha and two from Kylian Mbappe sealed the Parisians progression to a third Champions semi-final in just five years – we hear from their Portugese midfielder Vitinha. There was yet more drama in the night’s other tie in Germany as Borussia Dortmund also recovered from a first leg deficit to beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 on the night and 5-4 on aggregate to qualify for their first semi-final in 11 years. Late second half goals from Niclas Fullkrug and Marcel Sabitzer won the tie for the Germans to set up a last four showdown with Paris St Germain. We hear from goalscorer Fullkrug and UEFA Player of the Match Julian Brandt. 

The second night of UEFA Champions League quarter-final action lived up to the first, with drama aplenty across the two ties. In the French capital, Paris and Barcelona shared five goals between them, with the Spanish side securing a 3-2 win and a narrow advantage to take into next week’s second leg. Meanwhile, a tight contest at Estadio Metropolitano saw Atletico beat Dortmund 2-1, with Julian Brandt hitting the woodwork in the final moments of the game. We hear from Dortmund goal scorer Sebastien Haller and Atletico defender Cesar Azpilicueta.

The quarter-final first legs began with a bang this evening with brilliant goals aplenty in both Madrid and London. At the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, the 2022 and the 2023 champions played out a thrilling 3-3 draw, with Real Madrid twice coming from behind to peg back Manchester City. We hear from City manager Pep Guardiola as well as surprise goalscorer Josko Gvardiol. Meanwhile, in North London, Harry Kane came back to haunt Arsenal again scoring a nerveless penalty as Bayern earnt a hard fought 2-2 draw. We hear from Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, goalscorer Leandro Trossard and Bayern winger Leroy Sane. 

After a night of high drama and late goals, the quarter-final line-up for this year’s UEFA Champions League is now complete. Dortmund overcame a spirited PSV 2-0 in their last 16 second leg, courtesy of goals from Jadon Sancho and Marco Reus, winning 3-1 on aggregate. Elsewhere, Inter looked set for the quarter-finals, before a late Memphis Depay goal for Atletico levelled the tie at 2-2. After extra time it took penalties to separate the sides, with Atletico coming out on top at Estadio Metropolitano We hear from the victorious Dortmund camp with Jadon Sancho and Gregor Kobel, as well as defeated PSV boss Peter Bosz. The two goalkeepers involved in the penalty shootout between Atletico and Inter, Jan Oblak and Yann Sommer, also share their thoughts.

After 90 minutes and extra-time, Arsenal finally booked their place in the quarter-finals as David Raya denied Porto twice in the Champions League’s first penalty shoot-out since 2016. Elsewhere, Barcelona booked their return to the next stage as goals from Fermín López, João Cancelo and Robert Lewandowski saw them beat Napoli 3-1 on the night, 4-2 in the tie. We hear from Raya, Mikel Arteta and Xavi.

Another two clubs have secured their spots in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals! In a pulsating game at the Bernabeu, Leipzig gave it everything to overturn a narrow 1-0 deficit against Real Madrid, but it was the 14-time European champions who progressed to the last eight after a 1-1 draw on the night made it 2-1 on aggregate. Meanwhile, Manchester City repeated their 3-1 first leg victory over Leipzig to secure an emphatic 6-2 aggregate win and keep their title defence on track.  We hear from Madrid’s midfield star Jude Bellingham, as well City boss Pep Guardiola, and one of their goal scorers, who was also UEFA Player of the Match, Manuel Akanji. We also look ahead to the remaining last 16 encounters in this year’s competition.

The first two Champions League quarter-finalists were decided tonight in emphatic fashion. In Munich, Bayern made light work of their Round of 16 first leg deficit cruising to a 3-0 victory over Lazio, progressing 3-1 on aggregate, thanks to a Harry Kane brace and Thomas Muller strike. In the night’s other last 16 encounter, Kylian Mbappe inspired Paris to an impressive 2-1 win over Real Sociedad in San Sebastian, netting both his side’s goals to seal a comfortable 4-1 aggregate victory. We hear from both match winners, Mbappe and Kane, as well as Bayern’s Matthijs de Ligt and Thomas Muller. Plus we look ahead to Wednesday’s Round of 16 second legs, with Manchester City and Real Madrid in control of their ties against Copenhagen and Leipzig respectively.

The Round of 16 first legs culminated with late drama, as Porto’s talisman Galeno struck an injury time stunner to break Arsenal hearts. Elsewhere in Italy, it was a battle of the goalscoring number nines as Victor Osimhen cancelled out Robert Lewandowski’s first half strike to earn Napoli a 1-1 draw with Barcelona. We hear from Barca midfielder Ilkay Gundogan on the two world class strikers as well as Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta and Declan Rice, who is optimistic ahead of the 2nd leg despite his side’s narrow defeat. 

The Round of 16 continued with two more absorbing first leg encounters. In Milan, Inter overcame Atletico 1-0 at the San Siro courtesy of a late Marko Arnautovic strike. While in Eindhoven, PSV and Dortmund played out a evenly fought 1-1 draw with a Luke de Jong penalty cancelling out an early Donyell Malen strike for the Germans. We hear from Arnautovic as well as team-mate Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Atletico goalkeeper Jan Oblak. We also look ahead to Wednesday’s first leg encounters and hear from Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.