What we learnt from the Champions League 2nd Round Part 2

The last 4 spots for a place in the quarter finals was keenly contested and if what we experienced this week is anything to go by the quarter final of the UEFA Champions League will be very exciting.
Luckily for me my prediction was spot on as Barcelona, Man City, Athletico Madrid and Bayern Munich made it to the last eight. However Bayern Munich and Athletico Madrid barely scaled through to the last eight. A brief recap of the matches is outlined below.

Barcelona 3 vs 1 Arsenal (5-1 agg)

This match was over before it began and as expected Arsenal crashed out of the tournament. The catalan giants did not need to play at a top level as they already held a comfortable 2-0 cushion from the first leg. In spite of their advantage they still made their technical superiority count as Neymar opened scoring on the 18th minute, Suarez scored a sensational strike and Messi added more gloss to the scoreline to effectively end the contest. Arsenal have been eliminated at the 2nd round in the last 6 seasons.

Man City 0 vs 0 Dynamo Kiev (3-1 agg)

Man City comfortably qualified for the quarter final for the first time in their history, but this was a scrappy affair. They would be disappointed that Kompany and Otamendi sustained injuries as that would seriously affect their battle for a top four position in the premiership and it would mean that they would definitely miss the Manchester derby.

Athletico Madrid 0 vs 0 PSV (8-7 pens)

This was really the pick of the matches this week but it ended in a stalemate as both sides could not find the back of the net in regulation time. Athletico Madrid grew in confidence as the game progressed and were the deadlier of the two sides but even after 30 mins of extra time both sides could not be seperated which brought about the dreaded penalty kicks.
Both teams scored their first 5 penalties as the spot kick takers played with so much confidence and both keepers had a touch to some of the spot kicks but lacked enough power to keep them out.
Narsingh’s attempt which hit the crossbar eventually paved the way for Juanfran to score the decisive spot kick which led to massive celebration in the Vicente Calderon as Atletico triumphed 8-7.

Bayern Munich 4 vs 2 Juventus (6-4 agg)

Many assumed that Bayern Munich would easily wrap this tie at the Allianz Arena but they had to qualify the hard way. The abscence of Dybala, Marchissio and Chiellini was expected to mess Juventus gameplan but they rose to the occasion as they capitalized on sloppy defending from Bayern which allowed Pogba and Cuadrado to score in the first 30mins. But just as Bayern carelessly squandered their 2-0 lead in Turin, Juventus were guilty this time around as Morata missed a couple of chances to wrap the game up.
Bayern Munich began to find their rhytm and a Lewandoski strike gave them hope that an equaliser was in the cards and this came up in the 90th minute by Thomas Muller.
The injury time goal sunk Juventus heart and they could not recover from the heartbreak as they shipped in 2 extra goals in injury time courtesy of Thiago Alcantara and Coman to send them packing.
Juventus would be left wondering how they threw this game away and let Bayern back into the tie.

So there you have it the results of the matches played on Tuesday and Wednesday, now we are left anticipating the quarter final draw on Friday.