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Champions League Round Up: Real Madrid and Man City clinch decisive wins in first leg

Twenty-year-old Vinicius Junior scored a brace as Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 3-1 in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie in Madrid on Tuesday. Going into the game Madrid was not playing with their first-choice centre-back pairing as Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos were ruled out due to covid and injury.

However, injuries didn’t stop Real Madrid from dominating the game against Liverpool. They took the lead in the 27 min when Tony Kroos played a wonderful ball over the top into the feet of Vinicius Jr. The Brazilian collected the pass elegantly and slotted it past Alisson.

Few minutes later, Liverpool right-back Trent-Alexander Arnold made a ghastly error giving away the ball to Vinicius who lobbed through the ball down the left into the path of Asensio with only the keeper to beat.

Liverpool came out strong in the second half as Salah pulled a goal back early in the second half. Vinicius restored the home side’s two-goal lead by scoring his second goal in the 65th minute. It was a clever move from the throw-in, but Liverpool’s defending was left much to be desired for this goal. The English side does have an away goal but overturning this deficit in the second leg will take special effort.

Manchester City go to Dortmund with a slender advantage

Meanwhile, Manchester City hosted Dortmund in the second Champions League quarter-final of the day. The game ended 2-1 as Phil Foden scored the winner in the dying minutes to seal the victory for Pep Guardiola’s side.

Earlier in the game, Man City opened the scoring after a howler from Emre Can. The German midfielder gave away the ball in a bad area, allowing Kevin De Bryune to open the scoring inside 20 minutes. Dortmund was hard done as Jude Bellingham knicked the ball away from Ederson and was left to tap into an empty net, but the referee had blown the whistle before he dispatched the ball into the net.

City took a 1-0 lead in halftime but Dortmund did well to contain City in the second half. The perseverance of visitors paid off when Erling Haaland played a clever through ball to Marco Reus in the 83rd minute. The German forward calmly hammered the ball past Ederson to equalise the score. However, the happiness of away goal didn’t last long as Phil Foden scored second for Man City before the final minute. The goal from Foden gave Man City a slender advantage over Dortmund for the return leg on April 14 in Germany.

 

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