From dreams to disaster: How Man City & Chelsea fell apart while Arsenal stood tall | OneFootball

Premier League sides delivered a mixed bag of results in the UEFA Champions League round of 16.

Real Madrid humble Manchester City

It has been a tough week for Manchester City.

After seeing their hopes of leapfrogging Arsenal in the domestic championship dashed by West Ham United last weekend, Pep Guardiola’s side bowed out of Europe’s most prestigious club competition rather unceremoniously.

Despite facing a significant 3-0 deficit from the first leg, the Cityzens had hoped to turn their mouth-watering tie against Real Madrid on its head, perhaps buoyed by the home comforts of the Etihad Stadium.

However, Bernardo Silva’s recklessness midway through the first half crushed those dreams, with the Man City captain giving away a mindless penalty and receiving a straight red card in the process.

Indeed, the experienced midfielder handled the ball on the line in a desperate attempt to prevent Vinicius Junior from breaking the deadlock. Unfortunately for City, he only postponed the inevitable.

Vinicius converted the spot-kick to extend Madrid’s aggregate lead to an unassailable four goals, putting 10-man Man City in a near-impossible situation.

Though down a man, Guardiola’s team found an equaliser on the stroke of half-time, as Erling Braut Haaland tapped the ball home from point-blank range, giving the hosts a glimmer of hope ahead of the second half.

It was still a pipe dream, and City didn’t have enough energy and ideas to score three goals after the break. Vinicius added insult to injury in stoppage time, completing his brace to secure a 5-2 aggregate triumph for Los Merengues.

Paris Saint-Germain dismantle Chelsea

As if a 5-2 defeat at the Parc des Princes last week wasn’t painful enough, Chelsea suffered another embarrassing loss at Stamford Bridge tonight, as Les Parisiens ran out 3-0 winners.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia drew first blood in the sixth minute, immediately extinguishing the Blues’ hopes of a second-leg fightback to set the tone for another memorable European night for the reigning champions.

Bradley Barcola, who also found the net in the reverse fixture, made it 2-0 only eight minutes later with an absolute screamer, putting Luis Enrique’s all-conquering team five goals up.

Despite creating several decent scoring opportunities, Chelsea couldn’t find a way past Matvey Safonov, who made nine saves to secure PSG’s first clean sheet in their last six Champions League outings.

Teenage midfielder Senny Mayulu compounded Liam Rosenior’s side’s misery shortly after the hour mark, prompting many home fans to head for the exits 30 minutes before the final whistle.

Unable to bounce back, Chelsea suffered their joint-heaviest defeat in a two-legged European tie.

Arsenal save England’s pride

Runaway Premier League leaders Arsenal are the only English side to progress from the round of 16 so far, with Liverpool facing an uphill task to overturn a 1-0 deficit against Galatasaray tomorrow.

Mikel Arteta’s high-flyers strolled to a 2-0 home victory over Bayer Leverkusen to reach the quarter-finals as 3-1 aggregate winners, maintaining their pursuit of a historic quadruple.

Eberechi Eze opened the scoring with a headline-grabbing strike late in the first half, while Declan Rice put clear daylight between the sides in the 63rd minute with a perfectly-taken long-range effort.

Now unbeaten in 14 consecutive games in all competitions, the Gunners head into their quarter-final tie against Sporting CP as odds-on favourites to progress, even though the Portuguese side proved their credentials earlier today.

The defending Primeira Liga champions became only the fifth side in Champions League history to overturn a three-goal deficit, fighting back from a 3-0 first-leg defeat against Bodo/Glimt to progress as 5-3 aggregate victors.

It will be exciting to see if Liverpool can pull off a comeback against Victor Osimhen and co tomorrow.