Fact: This is how the Champions League is decided
Ready for quarter-finals: Benfica, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Milan.
Other eighths:
Manchester City-Leipzig (1–1, return 14 March)
Porto-Inter (0–1, return 14 March)
Real Madrid-Liverpool (5–2, return 15 March)
Napoli-Frankfurt (2–0, return 15 March)
Important dates:
17 March: quarter-finals and semi-finals are drawn.
11-12 and 18-19 April: quarter-finals.
9-10 and 16-17 May: semi-finals.
June 10: the final in Istanbul.
After Milan’s 1-0 win at the San Siro (goal by Brahim Díaz) two weeks ago, the pressure was on Tottenham ahead of the meeting in London.
To solve the task, Spurs coach Antonio Conte sent out a starting eleven with Dejan Kulusevski on the right wing. But the Swede’s Tottenham had despaired of finding it difficult to worry the red and black guests from Milan.
After a goalless first half, it wasn’t long before Conte started to see action on the sidelines. Soon a pale Ivan Perisic had to make way for Pedro Porro and later Richarlison came on for Emerson Royal.
With a quarter of an hour left, it started to be high time for a final push, but then Tottenham defender Cristian Romero really hit it off. With a yellow card with him from the first half, Romero carelessly clipped Theo Hernandez – and the sending off was a fact.
Chasing with only ten men on the field was not immediately easier for the home team. Kulusevski had to make way for Davinson Sánchez, but it didn’t change much. Tottenham continued to be remarkably toothless right up to the 90 minute mark, but in the third minute of added time they finally managed to carve out a good scoring chance. Harry Kane rose to the top of a free-kick and nodded sharply, but no better than Mike Maignan was able to save.
Tottenham didn’t get any closer than that, who now have to put all their energy into the Premier League, where they are fighting to reach a place in next season’s CL games.
Milan, where Zlatan Ibrahimovic is not included in the Champions League squad, is at the same time in the quarter-finals for the first time in eleven years.
They are also the first Italian team to qualify for this year’s quarterfinals. Next week, both Inter and Napoli, who have the advantage ahead of their returns against Porto and Frankfurt respectively, could join Milan in the top eight.
Should they succeed, Serie A will in all likelihood become the only league with three teams in the quarter-finals.