UCL: City escape Atletico’s wiles as Liverpool hold off Benfica

Ajayi Ayomide Peter April 14th, 2022, 5:41 am

Two teams each from England and Spain have made it into the semi-finals of the 2021/22 UCL season.

The Wanda Metropolitano was an incendiary cauldron on Wednesday as Atletico Madrid hosted Manchester City and tried to overturn the 1-0 deficit suffered at the Etihad last week. But despite nine minutes of added time, Diego Simeone’s team just came up short. However, the crowd thoroughly appreciated the effort and clapped off the Atletico players and their black-clad manager.

Theey had a last-gasp chance to take the game to extra time but Ederson saved from Angel Correa in the 12th minute of added time. City held on and go through to a second consecutive semi-final of the UEFA Champions League.

After 90 minutes, Atletico managed just two shots on target as City dominated ball possession. The behaviour of some of the Atletico players like Stevan Savic and Felipe, who was shown a second yellow card for a reckless follow-through on Phil Foden in the fifth minute of added time, was noted by the referee.

City players needed to be escorted off the pitch by stadium police as a scuffle ensued between Savic and Jack Grealish. The Metropolitano was under a fine and a section closed before CAS intervention. City are through to face 13-time UCL champions, Real Madrid, who pulled through against Chelsea 5-4 on aggregate on Tuesday.

In the other quarter-final clash at Anfield, Benfica made it a tetchy finish as they held Liverpool 3-3. Jurgen Klopp’s team is through to the semi-final 6-4 on aggregate where they will meet Bayern Munich’s conquerors, Villarreal.

Ibrahima Konate scored for the second consecutive game against Benfica, which gave the Reds the lead in the 12th minute but Goncalo Ramos equalised in the 32nd minute. Roberto Firmino restored Liverpool’s lead in the 55th minute and got his brace and his side’s third 10 minutes later. Klopp would have thought he could rest easy but Benfica had other ideas.

Roman Yaremchuk pulled one back for the Portuguese side in the 73rd minute and Darwin Núñez equalised with five minutes left on the clock. Sadio Mane scored but was flagged offside and Nunez thought he had his second in the fifth minute of added time but that was also flagged off.

The semi-final quartet for the 2021/22 Champions League season are Manchester City, Real Madrid, Villarreal, and Liverpool – two teams each from Spain and England.