The first four links of the Champions League playoffs are in the books, Tuesday’s matches throwing deliciously entertaining business.
The elimination of AC Milan in the hands of Feyenoord is perhaps the result of the head, but all the eyes were on the nervous survival of Bayern Munich against a Celtic side which was a few seconds to take the outfit of Vincent Kompany to extra time.
Here is an overview of all the action.
After Santiago Gimenez scored against his former employers after only 37 seconds to link things in aggregate, AC Milan seemed certain to continue and go to the steps with direct elimination. They were sailing in the first half, but the script completely turned when the back left Theo Hernandez was dismissed early in the second.
Theo, who picked up an unnecessary yellow card before the interval, was shown a second to dive in the 51st minute, and this act of simulation finally cost Milan. They failed to cope with the digital drawback and Feyenoord magnificently took control of the game, finally grabbing the goal they needed to win this link on the aggregates.
It was a stupid decision of Theo to try to deceive the official, and he was paid while he was watching his team escape from the first European competition.
Atalanta plays beautiful football at the same time, but the winners of the Europa League last year do not celebrate any intercontinental Argenne this year after being out of the bad side of a goal of Bergamo.
With an advantage of 2-1 in their rear pocket, Brugge was more than happy to sit down and frustrate Atalanta who, for all their possession, found a clear chances of cup incredibly difficult to find in the first half. They were 3-0 at the interval and the result seemed to be settled.
The replacement at halftime Admola Lookman seemed determined to change the story when he marked in the seconds after restart, but his penalty on time sucked the wind of Atalanta. Rafael Toloi’s late red card was the bitter frosting above the miserable cake.
There was a good old-fashioned battle between Benfica and Monaco, with the Portuguese side which emerged victorious after a 3-3 draw on the night won a global victory of 4-3.
Monaco was at the top of the first half and could have scored a handful of goals, the dangerous Breel Embolo missing an excellent chance in a really sublime way. Given the decent space inside the Benfica box, Embolo managed to send his effort by going on the way on the bar, reaching the type of altitude that most would find it difficult to break even trying.
The French side went twice in the second half, but Benfica simply did not lie. The penalty of Vangelis Pavlidis equaled things at 2-2 at night and, after George Ilenikhena thought he had set up an extension time, Orkun Kokcu was brought with six minutes to end a meeting electric.
Despite being the outsiders, Celtic did not hide from Bayern and could have turned their tie on its head if it had taken one of their three excellent chances at the start of the match. Callum McGregor, Nicolas Kuhn and Daizen Maeda could all have celebrated with a little more fortune.
Bayern took control of the second half and Celtic had to sit incredibly deeply to try to absorb the pressure, knowing that a counterattack was probably their only chance of survival in this competition. This chance in gold was given to them on time while Kuhn danced beyond the terrible defense to put Celtic in advance at night.
Celtic has dug deep, desperate to guarantee the famous victory that their animated performance undoubtedly deserved, but their resolved back line was finally raped in the ugliest of the modes while Alphonso Davies gathered the house in the fourth minion During time.
It is the real sorrow for Celtic, who deserves to celebrate what was finally a really impressive draw in Bayern.
