Liverpool beat RB Leipzig 2-0 at the Puskas Arena to secure a 4-0 aggregate win and a place in the Champions League quarter-finals. – By Madellene Markit.
Jurgen Klopp’s side, who suffered a sixth straight home defeat at the hands of Fulham on Sunday, continued their difficulties in front of goal during the first half, missing a number of chances.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane saw the club finally record a home victory, albeit in name only, with the match taking place in Budapest rather than at Anfield due to Covid-enforced travel restrictions.
A string of saves by goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, who was once a Liverpool player, kept Leipzig in contention before Salah made the breakthrough in the 70th minute.
Salah lined up a low shot tucked inside the right post after Diogo Jota showed smart movement on the counter to create space for Salah before passing to the Egypt forward.
Liverpool clearly have specific tactical issues to solve in the Premier League, but shifting Fabinho back into midfield, which occurred for the first time since October, can be part of that puzzle.
He provided greater protection for the raw centre-back partnership of Ozan Kabak and Nathaniel Phillips, while giving Thiago the chance to be more offensive.
Klopp said Liverpool succeeded by forgetting about the collapse of its campaign in England, where the team is 25 points off the league lead.
The closest Leipzig came to scoring was when Alexander Sorloth headed against the crossbar in the 67th minute, before Liverpool responded with two goals to end Leipzig’s chances.
Just as in the first leg, Liverpool was gifted chances by defensive blunders. Leipzig has the fewest goals conceded of any team in the Bundesliga but couldn’t reproduce that form in Europe this season, conceding 16 times in 8 games.
Paris Saint-Germain withstood early pressure from a much-improved but wasteful Barcelona side to draw 1-1 on Wednesday and reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
PSG lead 4-1 from the first leg of their round-of-16 game and moved 4 goals clear when Kylian Mbappe, who scored a hat trick at Camp Nou, netted with a confident penalty in the 31st minute.
Messi equalized in the 37th with a powerful shot from 25 meters that tore into the top left corner.
It was his 25th this season, and he could have scored again in first-half stoppage time as Layvin Kurzawa was penalised for catching Griezmann in the box.
However, Messi was denied by Navas, the former Real Madrid goalkeeper dousing Barcelona’s hopes as he continued to do in the second half.
But the six-time Golden Ball winner then had a penalty saved by goalkeeper Keylor Navas on the stroke of halftime, his first miss from the spot in the Champions League since 2015.
It is the first time since 2005 that neither Messi nor his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo have reached the last eight of the competition, following Juventus’ exit on Tuesday.
Barcelona dominated the first half and could have easily been ahead at the break, if not for some poor decision making from winger Ousmane Dembele in terms of both sloppy passing and poor finishing.
Mbappe scored from the spot for his fourth goal in the tie and his 26th of the season.
At the same stage of the competition four years ago, Barcelona lost 4-0 in Paris only to win 6-1 at Camp Nou in one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history.
Barcelona have been in crisis for some time but they have a new president in Joan Laporta, who will hope to restore calm and they can still hope to finish the season strongly domestically.
Meanwhile PSG are safely through to the quarter-finals as they look to go one better than last season and win the Champions League for the first time.
