5️⃣ things we learned from Tuesday's scintillating UCL action | OneFootball

The Champions League quarter-final second-legs kicked off Tuesday, and they did not disappoint.

Here are some of the main talking points from Dortmund and Barcelona.

Pure Champions League drama

After the first-legs provided some superb drama, we could have never imagined the intensity would get ramped up again — but boy, were we wrong…

In Spain, every possible narrative played out before our eyes. Ousmane Dembélé scored against his former team amid a barrage of whistles and jeers, Kylian Mbappé joined him on the scoresheet against a side that will likely be his main rival in the coming years.

Add to that list the battle between two former Barcelona greats in the dugouts, and we had the recipe for an all timer — that’s just what we got.

Meanwhile at the Signal Iduna Park, Borussia Dortmund stunned Atlético de Madrid, a team once nearly impenetrable in this competition, by scoring four and turning around the tie.

Two of those four came within three minutes of each other, and only 10 minutes after Atleti thought they had scored the goal that would see them through.

Was this the best set of quarter-final matchups we’ve ever seen?

Showing up when it matters (finally)

Dortmund have been a club marred by late slips, and collapses when it really matters since their golden era under Jürgen Klopp in the early 2010s.

After losing the Bundesliga title in devastating fashion on the final day of the campaign last year, Edin Terziç has simply pulled off a miracle with this team in the Champions League.

After getting out of a stacked group comprised of PSG, Newcastle United, and Milan, the Black and Yellow have now booked their spot in the semi-finals for the first time since 2012/13 when they went all the way to the final.

On top of that, they turned around a first-leg deficit against a team in Atlético that is notorious for smothering you once they are ahead.

You know the tides are changing when Dortmund are the team standing up when it truly matters most.

Take advantage of your luck

If any team can have a ‘banter era’ by consistently find their way to the latter stages of the Champions League, it’s been PSG.

Since the money flowed into the club and they started regularly competing on the European stage, there have been some almighty collapses over the years.

Nobody will forget Barcelona’s 6-1 comeback to stun the Parisians in the 2016/17 season. But this time around, it was the French giants’ time to get the rub of the green.

It looked like déjà vu all over again when Raphinha put Barça two ahead on aggregate in the opening minutes, but the tie was flipped on its head when Ronald Araújo was sent off for a challenge from behind on the streaking Bradley Barcola.

They still had work to do, but three goals in subsequent hour of play was all they needed to book their spot in the semi-final for the first time since 2020/21 season.

A peek into the future?

Say what you want about how Kylian Mbappé has handled the end of his time as a PSG player, the Frenchman always shows up when he is needed.

Two goals in the second-leg, after a quiet outing in Paris, saw Mbappé become the driving force in his side reaching the semi-final, and he did against a team that could be seeing a lot of him in the coming years.

Mbappé’s potential move to Real Madrid in the summer is perhaps the world’s worst-kept secret. And now Barcelona have witnessed first hand what they could be up against for a decade to come.

It won’t take long for the France captain to become one of the most unliked men in all of Barcelona, just like Cristiano Ronaldo before him.

But it begs the question, will a Messi-esque superstar step up for Barça in the coming years to truly reignite the rivalry on a global stage?

Another year goes by

You know Diego Simeone’s Atleti juggernaut has really met its end when they  give up leads on multiple occasions to let a two-legged tie slip away.

There was once a time when Los Colchoneros would snatch a lead and never look back — those days appear to be part of a bygone age now.

Credit must be given to the Borussia Dortmund players and fans for creating environment in which the Atleti players simply couldn’t handle for 90 minutes. Oh how the tables have turned.

While Atleti have not made the semi-finals since 2017, you can’t help but shake the feeling that this era has truly met its end.