8 goals across 4 game
©IMAGO
The first-legs of the Champions League play-off ties are complete after eight clubs faced off on Wednesday night. It wasn’t as thrilling as Tuesday night’s action when Jude Bellingham’s last minute winner for Real Madrid against Manchester City dominated the headlines.
PSG and Borussia Dortmund secured 3-0 wins on Tuesday night to effectively secure their places in the last 16. But only a single goal decided every tie on Wednesday night to leave all four fixtures delicately poised ahead of the return legs next week.
Champions League round-up: Wednesday, February 12th
In the early kick-off, Club Brugge secured the advantage over Atalanta with a hugely controversial 2-1 win in Belgium. It was an even encounter with Brugge opening the scoring through Ferran Jutgla before Mario Pasalic equalised for the Serie A side four minutes before half-time. The tie looked destined to finish 1-1 until Brugge were awarded a dubious penalty in the fourth minute of stoppage time, which Gustaf Nilsson dispatched.
Despite having one eye on a gigantic Bundesliga clash with Bayer Leverkusen this weekend, Bayern Munich emerged victorious against Celtic in Glasgow. The German giants survived an early scare after Celtic had an early goal correctly disallowed before Michael Olise and Harry Kane scored for Bayern within the first five minutes of the second half. Daizen Maeda pulled a goal back for Brendan Rodgers’ side with ten minutes remaining but Celtic face an uphill task in Munich next week.
All eyes were on Santiago Gimenez as he returned to face Feyenoord with AC Milan after leaving the Eredivisie side in January. But the Mexican international endured a night to forget as his former club secured a 1-0 win, courtesy of a goal from Igor Paixao in the third minute. Meanwhile, Benfica edged out Monaco 1-0 with Vangelis Pavlidis the hero once again for the Portuguese side. Pavlidis famously scored a hat-trick against Barcelona in the league phase and he netted the winner for Benfica with Monaco reduced to ten men on 52 minutes.
