Friday 19 / April / 2024
London: Manchester City and Real Madrid both won their second-leg matches in the UEFA Champions League last 16, reaching the quarterfinals with ease.
Real Madrid qualified for the quarterfinals with a 3-1 win at home to Italian side Atalanta, which gave them a 4-1 aggregate victory.
The Dea paid a heavy price for failing to take chances in attack, while making important errors in defense, which made Real Madrid's task easier on the back of their 1-0 win in Bergamo three weeks ago.
Atalanta could have got right back into the tie when Robin Gosens failed to take advantage of good work from Luis Muriel on the left and could only hit a tame shot at Thibaut Courtois when he should have done better.
Vinicius Jr also missed a good chance for Real Madrid on 27 minutes, but it didn't matter as his side took the lead five minutes later following a howling error from Marco Sportiello.
The Atalanta keeper sent his clearance straight to Luka Modric, who only had to pull the ball back for Karim Benzema to score a simple goal to put Real Madrid in command.
Vinicius produced a magnificent run early in the second half but failed to hit the target to score what would have been a spectacular goal, but just five minutes later he drew a foul in the Atalanta area that allowed Sergio Ramos to double Madrid's lead on the night.
Substitute Josip Ilcic fired wide for Atalanta when he could have done better before Courtois responded well on two occasions to frustrate Duvan Zapata.
The Madrid keeper also got a hand to Muriel's impressive free-kick seven minutes from time but was unable to keep out the excellent strike after a cleverly worked free-kick.
Any hopes Atalanta had of a fightback were quickly snuffed out after Lucas Vazquez was allowed space down the right to cross from Marco Asensio to make it 3-1 on the night after taking a touch in the area.
Manchester City cruised into the Champions League quarter-finals with a 2-0 win over Borussia Monchengladbach in the second leg on Wednesday.
In the first leg as well, Manchester City had defeated Borussia Monchengladbach 2-0. Manchester City started the match brightly and scored both their goals in the opening 20 minutes. Kevin De Bruyne scored the first goal, putting Manchester City ahead in the 12th minute. De Bruyne has now scored eight UEFA Champions League goals; five of those have come in the knockout phase.
Manchester City maintained their attacking mindset and got the reward in the 18th minute when Ilkay Gundogan doubled their lead.
Pep Guardiola's side then defended well and managed to keep a clean sheet. Manchester City's seventh consecutive clean sheet moves them into second place - level with AC Milan - in the list of most successive clean sheets in the Champions League. Arsenal hold the record with ten.
Manchester City will next play against Everton in the FA Cup on March 20.
