💫 UCL Awards: Groundhog Day, the Lion King, glow ups from nightmare exes | OneFootball

Chelsea, Benfica, Bayern Munich and Milan all booked their places in the Champions League quarter-finals this week.

And now it’s time to dish out some awards.

The Comeback Kings Award

With two wins in their last two matches, things are beginning to look up for Graham Potter’s Chelsea.

The Blues went into Tuesday’s second leg with Borussia Dortmund with a 1-0 deficit to overcome, and they did exactly that with a thoroughly professional and composed 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge.

Is this the start of a change in fortunes?

The If At First You Don’t Succeed Award

Kai Havertz has had his ups and downs at Chelsea but the 23-year-old has a big game mentality, and he showed impressive mental fortitude to convert a penalty at the second attempt having missed the first one on Tuesday.

Not that Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham was very happy about Havertz being allowed to re-take the penalty …

The Lion King Award

Raheem Sterling was the other goalscorer for Chelsea on Tuesday and he is closing in on Wayne Rooney’s record as England’s top goalscorer in the Champions League.

Can he break that record this season?

The Dark Horses Award

Benfica lost Darwin Núñez in the summer and Enzo Fernández in January but it doesn’t seem to have affected them very much at all.

The Portuguese champions racked up their biggest ever Champions League home win with Tuesday’s 5-1 thrashing of Club Brugge, extending their run to 12 games unbeaten in Europe this season.

Underestimate them at your peril when the quarter-final draw is made.

The Proud Big Brother Award

After his hat-trick for Portugal at the World Cup, Gonçalo Ramos showed again on Tuesday why Europe’s top clubs are all reportedly having a look at him when he bagged a brace for Benfica.

And what a nice gesture it was for Rafa Silva to give his Man of the Match award to his 21-year-old team-mate.

The Glow Up Award

With the greatest respect to Stoke City, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s career trajectory has been insane over the last few years.

Since being relegated from the Premier League with the Potters in 2018, the Cameroon striker has lifted league titles in both France and Germany, and on Wednesday night he scored one of the goals for Bayern Munich which eliminated his former club Paris Saint-Germain from the Champions League.

That was the 33-year-old’s third goal in four meetings with PSG since his 2020 departure from the French capital. Talk about a nightmare ex!

The European Royalty Award

It was fitting that Bayern’s 2-0 win over PSG booked the Bundesliga giants a spot in their 20th Champions League quarter-final, which is a record in the competition.

Do Julian Nagelsmann’s side have what it takes to lift the trophy this season? We wouldn’t rule it out.

The Groundhog Day Award

But it was another lamentable night in the Champions League for PSG, who exited the competition at the last 16 stage for the fifth time in seven years.

The French champions seem to be getting further away from getting their hands on that elusive piece of silverware, and this latest failure could spell particularly bad news for coach Christophe Galtier and his future at the club.

The Rare As Hens’ Teeth Award

Milan sealed their passage to the last eight courtesy of a hard fought 0-0 draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday.

And it was quite the collector’s item, as goalless draws at Spurs simply don’t come along very often.

Milan defender Fikayo Tomori was named Man of the Match, but credit is also due to his centre-back partners Malick Thiaw and Pierre Kalulu for a monstrous defensive performance which saw the Rossoneri claim a fourth consecutive clean sheet and also book their first Champions League quarter-final berth in 11 years.