UEFA Champions League: Man City Humble Bayern, 4-1, Inter Subdue Fighting Benfica, 5-3

By Aiwu Esele

 

 

Clockwise; Erling Haaland rejoices after opening scoring for City while Bayern captain Joshua Kimmich scores the equaliser and Benfica’s Silva heads in the second and Inter’s Dimarco celebrates the second for his team.

The two- quarter final Champion League matches between Manchester City and Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena and between Inter Milan and Benfica at San Siro ended predictably in favour of the winners in the first leg.

Bayern Dayot Upamecano who narrowly escaped being red carded in early minutes of the game was penalised for handling the ball from a shot and Manchester City got a penalty! But it was an anti-climax, 37^th minutes into the game.

Manchester City forward Erling Haaland stepped forward to curl in the kick but it went over the bar. He however made up for it by scoring the opening goal in the 57^th minute with a De Bruyne assist.

Bayern Munich came out blazing but they could not find the net until they got a penalty after substituted Sadio Mane hit the ball up into Manuel Akanji’s hand.

The Bayern captain, Joshua Kimmich converted the kick and pulled one back. But it was a consolation as the game ended 1-1 and 4-1 aggregate in favour of Manchester City.  City will now take on Madrid at the Bernabéu for the first leg of the semis.

The cracker of the Wednesday night was the tie between Inter Milan and Benfica.

Inter’s Barella opened scoring early, appearing to have wrapped up tie for Inter Milan but Fredrik Aursnes 20th minute equaliser for Benfica turned the tide for the visitors as the Portuguese gave themselves a lifeline inside the San Siro.

Then in the 56^th minute, Inter’s Lautaro Martinez ran towards the front post and got there before Nicolas Otamendi to help Federico Dimarco’s perfect cross into the roof of the net.

It appeared to be raining for Benfica when Correa made it three.

But never say die Benfica kept up the pressure, refusing to go down with a fight. And then in the 86^th minute, they made it two when Antonio Silva nodded in a free-kick to cut Inter’s lead again, until substitute Petar Musa in the 90+3 minutes ran into the box to fire in a cross to make it 3-3. But Inter had the game for the night at 5-3 aggregate.

With their win, Inter Milan has set up a Milan semi-final derby with AC Milan.