Our 5️⃣ points as the UCL quarter-finals take shape | OneFootball

All eight teams have booked their spots in the Champions League quarter-finals after Real Madrid and Napoli victories.

Here is what we made of Wednesday night’s action.

Over before it even started

Heading into the night’s action, Liverpool and Eintracht Frankfurt both had a mountain to climb if they wanted to stay alive.

We’ve been treated to thrilling Champions League comebacks in recent seasons and know anything is possible in Europe, but these ties were virtually over before they started.

Neither the Premier League side nor the German club had the right approach (or perhaps the right talent?) to kick-start a potential comeback over 90 minutes and were a step behind yet again, completely puzzled.

Real Madrid and Napoli already had one foot in the quarters after emphatic first-leg performances, which made for slightly boring second-leg fixtures.

Neither club needed to turn up the heat and, by their standards, played with one foot off the gas and conserved some energy ahead of key league fixtures.

The lesson here will be don’t leave it too late in a knockout tie; taking control is key.

Striker debate headaches

When you ask who the deadliest scorers are in football at the moment, you don’t think of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi anymore (albeit the Argentine still shines with Paris Saint Germain).

Instead, we’ve entered into the next era where new talent is taking the game by storm, and they all have ludicrous stats to prove it.

After Erling Haaland became just the third player to score five goals in a Champions League game, Victor Osimhen kept his name in the mix for Europe’s best attacker.

A two-goal haul against Frankfurt meant the Nigerian now has 22 goals in 28 games this season and is rightfully on the radar of many clubs.

Let us not forget there is also the in-form Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior , Lautaro Martīnez and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, all still in the competition. Defenders are quaking everywhere.

Oh, and in case you missed it, another new talent made headlines on Wednesday as Gift Orban scored a three-minute hat-trick for Gent in the Europa Conference League. Who knows what his career has in store!

Another dagger for Klopp?

It’s been a lopsided few weeks for Liverpool, to say the least, and we may be a step closer to Jürgen Klopp’s exit from Anfield.

The Reds are well off where they should be in the Premier League and could miss out on the top four; they were knocked out of Europe at the hands of their rivals once again and have no more silverware to play for.

A thumping 7-0 win over Manchester United suggested Klopp might have had his team back on track, but it was simply too good to be true. Liverpool remain a shadow of themselves.

The players available are still some of the best, but the manager struggles to find a way to get them to click on the pitch.

Darwin Núñez, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson are far away from the end of their careers but look like they’re mid-level talent at the moment (we know this is far, far from true).

It’s been a glorious run under Klopp, history-making at that, but perhaps it is finally time to move on.

Goalkeeper praise

We also have to praise the goalkeepers on Wednesday following some stellar performances in both games.

Alisson Becker was the outright top performer, making incredible last-ditch saves on Vinícius Júnior, Eduardo Camavinga and Fede Valverde.

Only a bit of luck led to Real Madrid putting the ball beyond him as it bounced in the right way for Vinicius Junior to tee up Benzema with 10 minutes to go.

Thibaut Courtois was just as impressive, preventing five shots on target from finding the net, but Liverpool’s attack died out as time passed, so his second half was quite a lull.

Meanwhile, over in Italy, the acrobatics of Kevin Trapp kept Frankfurt within reach of potentially stunning Napoli.

The German goalkeeper was kept on his toes throughout the entire 90 minutes, especially in the first half making four saves from five of Napoli’s attempts. Ultimately, only disastrous defending in front of him let him down.

It’s anyone’s year!

So there we have it. One of these final eight sides will be crowned Kings of Europe. However, this year, there isn’t a true underdog left at this stage in the competition.

Porto and Borussia Dortmund were oh close to claiming those titles, but both bowed out, and every club left has a real shot at winning it all.

Reigning champions Real Madrid have won the competition 14 times (nothing else needs to be said), while Bayern Munich could be considered the favourites this year with seemingly nothing wrong in their squad.

Napoli are in sensational form this season, running circles in Serie A thanks to their lethal duo Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia, and their fairytale run continued in Europe.

Portuguese side Benfica comfortably bettered PSG and Juventus to get to this stage and look to be firing on all cylinders after winning 7-1 on aggregate in the Round of 16 and also sit first in their league.

Meanwhile, Inter Milan sit second in Italy and demonstrated an inch-perfect game plan to stay alive in Europe (defence wins championships, right!?).

And Manchester City have the in-form Erling Haaland in their squad this season, who could be the difference-maker for the title they dream of.

The weakest of the bunch could be Chelsea or Milan. But the 2021 winners spent a whopping £300 million on new talent (and therefore don’t fit the underdog definition) while the Italian side have won the competition the second most times (seven).

This year it really is anyone’s competition. Who will come out on top?