UEFA Champions League: Manchester United and Dortmund battle for survival

From France to Germany: Spain to Portugal, the UEFA Champions League returns this midweek with mouth-watering fixtures in the second leg of the round of 16 matches. The red devils, Manchester United, will travel to France to take on French champions (Paris Saint Germain) at the Parc des Prince hoping to upturn a two-goal deficit.

Presnel Kimpembe and Kylian Mbappe scored in the second half to turn United’s theater of dreams into theatre of nightmare. United’s night moved from bad to worse when their playmaker Paul Pogba was sent-off on the 89th minute after receiving two yellow cards.

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Without Paul Pogba and the likely return of PSG’s hit man, Edinson Cavani, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side will have a long, difficult night in Paris. Angel Di Maria, who was named the man of the match in the first leg will be on hand to torment United defense and deliver that defense splitting passes to Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani.

But, the other English side Tottenham Hotspurs will not be on so much pressure when they storm Germany to take on Borussia Dortmund. Spurs did all the hard work at home, hammering their German guests 3-0.

After a goalless first half, the English side came out more purposeful and determined to get all three points. Their effort was rewarded just two minutes into the second half when Son Heung–Min shot the home side in front to send Spurs fans into jubilation. Ventonghen made it two on the 83rd minute before Llorente put the icing on the cake three minutes later.

Another side that will be battling for survival is Ajax Amsterdam of Holland. They lost their first leg to defending champions, Real Madrid 1-2 at home.

It will surely be a difficult task, but not impossible to go to Santiago Bernabeu to get a favorable result.

Karim Benzema drew the first blood after the first half had ended goalless, but, Hakim Ziyeeh leveled from 10 yards to give the home side the hope of at least getting the point from the match. But Ajax hope of Salvaging something from the game was dashed when Marco Asensio scored the winner from Dani Carvajal’s cross.

The last match for this mid-week will see Portugal champions F.C. Porto welcome AS Roma.

Nicolo Zaniolo became the second youngest Italian to score a champions league goal – only behind Mario Balotelli when he scored a second-half brace to give his side the lead.

But, Porto scored a goal, which might turn out to be very valuable when Adrian Lopez scored on the 79th minutes after Tiquinho Soares’ mis-hit shot landed in his path.

Porto will qualify if they defeat their Italian opponents by a lone goal. But AS Roma is aware of that, so they will surely be determined to grab an away goal.

By Delight Caesar

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