From Lisbon to Madrid, passing through the far north, this Champions League delivered plenty of surprises on the penultimate matchday of the regular season.
The Champions stumble
Dominating does not mean winning, and PSG learned that lesson the hard way. PSG completely outplayed Sporting, leaving them no room to breathe, but the goals never came. PSG did score twice, but both goals were disallowed, and as frustration grew, mistakes followed and spaces opened up. That led to Sporting Lisbon’s opening goal through Luis Suárez. While PSG thought they had done the hardest part by equalizing through Kvaratskhelia, they then switched off, and Lucas Chevalier showed why he is considered PSG’s weak link. On a shot from Trincão, the French goalkeeper spilled the ball, which rebounded off Luis Suárez, who completed his brace.
PSG sabotaged themselves and will have to be extremely careful ahead of Newcastle’s visit.
Bodø Glimt freeze Manchester City
On a trip above the Arctic Circle, Manchester City were frozen by Bodø. Høgh will haunt Guardiola’s nights. The Danish striker scored a lightning-fast brace in two minutes to throw Manchester City into doubt. This performance reflected that of their captain, Rodri, who received a foolish red card. Jens Petter Hauge extended the lead before Cherki pulled one back to save the Cityzens’ pride.
Real Madrid crush Monaco
Sickly and targeted by whistles at the Santiago Bernabéu, Real Madrid reassured themselves with a tennis scoreline against AS Monaco. Mbappé scored a brace against his former club, Vinícius also found the net, as did Mastantuono and Bellingham. Monaco completely collapsed and suffered the heaviest Champions League defeat in their history.
Elsewhere
Tottenham reassured themselves by beating Dortmund 2–0, Bayer Leverkusen lost by the same scoreline to Olympiakos, Napoli could do no better than a draw against Copenhagen despite being a man up, Bruges demolished Kairat Almaty, and Ajax stayed alive against Villarreal, who are eliminated from the Champions League.