Barcelona FC, Paris Saint Germain, Inter-Milan, and Bayern Munich were the first four teams to advance to the quarter final stage of the UEFA Champions League games 2024/2025

Barcelona had become the first team into the last eight, turning on the style in an emphatic second-leg win against Benfica in the early kick-off.

Barcelona 3-1 Benfica (agg: 4-1)

Raphinha and Lamine Yamal starred as Barcelona roared into the quarter-finals. The pair combined for the 11th-minute opener, the Spanish youngster providing a fine cross for the Brazilian international to coolly volley in. Nicolás Otamendi replied almost instantly for Benfica with a header.

Yamal netted the pick of the goals with a sublime curling strike on 27 minutes, and Raphinha then fired in his 11th of the campaign to become the overall top scorer this season and end the contest before half-time.

Paris Saint Germain won 1-0 at Anfield before more Gianluigi Donnarumma shoot-out heroics helped them to overcome Liverpool on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.

Liverpool 0-1 Paris (agg: 1-1; 1-4 pens)

Paris keeper Donnarumma saved twice in the shoot-out as Paris overcame a 1-0 first-leg deficit to reach the quarter-finals.

Ousmane Dembélé completed a slick move by slotting in his seventh goal of the campaign in the 12th minute, drawing Paris level in the tie in doing so, but Liverpool dominated after the break and Luis Enrique’s side needed Donnarumma to brilliantly paw Luis Díaz’s header away and maintain overall parity in the tie.

The visitors went closest during extra time before Donnarumma denied Darwin Núñez and Curtis Jones from the spot, allowing 19-year-old substitute Désiré Doué to convert the decisive penalty.

Inter 2-1 Feyenoord (agg: 4-1)

Inter Milan are through to the quarter-finals for just the second time since 2010/11 after wrapping up a comfortable aggregate triumph over Feyenoord.

Marcus Thuram put the Serie A side ahead in style eight minutes in, receiving the ball midway inside the Feyenoord half and weaving his way into the penalty area before unleashing a sensational long-range strike.

Jakub Moder reduced the deficit for Feyenoord from the penalty spot just before half-time but Inter replied with a spot kick of their own shortly after the interval, converted by Hakan Çalhanoğlu for his second goal in the Champions League knockout rounds – the first coming in February 2015.

Bayern München also cruised through against Bundesliga rivals Leverkusen, and will meet Inter in the quarter-finals after the Nerazzurri completed their assignment against Feyenoord.

Leverkusen 0-2 Bayern München (agg: 0-5)

Harry Kane’s tap-in and Alphonso Davies’ first-time finish sealed a convincing victory for Bayern.

Kane, twice denied by Lukas Hrádecký in the opening stages, extended the lead across the tie early in the second half with a straightforward strike after Patrik Schick’s clearance rebounded into the path of the Bayern No9.

The England captain then turned provider when spotting the run of Davies into the area, with the Canadian international full-back sweeping in impressively.

The visitors pressed for further goals in the closing stages, with Jamal Musiala denied by the woodwork on two occasions.

A hugely disappointing night for Arne Slot came as Liverpool lost Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate to injuries before the Carabao Cup final

Liverpool have to quickly pick themselves up, after a deflating elimination that currently feels like the first time they are faltering under Arne Slot.

A treble evaporates for Liverpool, and a double may yet go with it. This penalty shoot-out defeat to Paris Saint-Germain after a 1-0 loss didn’t just cost them a place in the Champions League quarter-final, but also a series of defenders for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Newcastle. Ibrahima Konate and Trent Alexander-Arnold are now in doubt, in developments that may end up the most significant of the night.

Against such talk of trebles and doubles, PSG showed an impressively singular mindset. They radiated manager Luis Enrique’s belief that they would win and turn this around, with huge slices of luck only bolstering their belief rather than weakening it.

That was needed, because so much of this outcome went against history and expectation. Liverpool lost a shoot-out in the European Cup and Champions League for the first time, despite the club having won them in even tenser situations. It is also the first time they have been knocked out at Anfield having won a first leg.

PSG meanwhile came through, from a situation that is commonly held up as a test of nerve. That certainly goes against the club’s recent history. Maybe that’s why they needed Enrique’s certainty, above all else, more than Lionel Messi or Neymar.

It might genuinely be a true threshold moment for the Qatari sportswashing project, their young team coming through where more glamorous and wealthy predecessors failed.

There is now a narrative richness to the likelihood that they will face Unai Emery’s Aston Villa in the quarter-finals, since he was the manager at the helm for that notorious 6-1 defeat to Enrique’s Barcelona.

There are so many storylines there, probably more than the Premier League tie we could have had between Liverpool and Villa.

Slot’s side will now be castigated for squandering an opportunity when they had been ahead and had been hailed as the best team in Europe.

That is perhaps a little harsh, since they just came up against a side that can now lay claim to that description.

PSG oddly weren’t as good as in the first leg, but they were more exacting, in what an excellent match.

A comment doing the rounds in football is that a grounded team doesn’t quite fit the nature of the club.

They were probably fitting winners over the full four hours of football… just about.

So much of the game was the reverse of the second leg. Liverpool immediately subjected PSG to a real storm, only for the French team to this time enjoy the satisfaction of delivering a sucker punch.

This one was much earlier than in Paris, setting up a properly pulsating second leg. It was Champions League football of the highest level, and intensity. There were some passages of play where it was both sides just constantly snapping at each other, pressing to the extreme.

That was only some passages, though. The game was mostly Liverpool pressing PSG right back to their goal-line.

In another reverse of the first leg, too, Slot’s side could also have been 3-0 up in the first 15 minutes. They were that on top, creating that many chances. Nuno Mendes, who generally had a good game against Mohamed Salah, set a tone by blocking the Egyptian’s goal-bound shot onto the bar.

Liverpool at that early stage looked a little rushed in attack. They were soon looking ragged, although that might have been understandable.

It was maybe the effect of PSG’s sucker punch, that was all the worse because of the nature of it. Luis Enrique’s side again exploiting unusually open space in the Liverpool midfield, Khvicha Kvaratshelia surged through in that inimitable style. He played it out to Bradley Barcola, who played it in for Dembele… only for Ibrahima Konate to direct the ball away from Alisson and into the forward’s path.

The entire tie was suddenly thrown in the air out of nothing. Liverpool, for their part, kept just going at PSG with everything.

A problem was how often the crucial final pass was just a few yards wide, or a few yards behind. When someone like Luis Diaz did get through to shoot, the finishes were even more frustrating because they were so close.

There was one significant difference from the first leg, mind. That was that, unlike in Paris, the home side did get better in the first half.

They upped it, with Slot adapting to shore up the centre of the pitch, for the team to go closer and closer to goal.

That just made the missed chances agonising rather than simply frustrating. So many seemed to flash wide. In a moment that seemed to sum up so much of the attacking in open play, Luis Diaz was open in the area for a killer moment in the second half… only for Salah to play the ball that bit too far away from him and the Colombian to miscontrol it.

Gianluigi Donnarumma, for his part, was a lot better than in the first leg – if still far from stellar. He was here at least beating crosses away, if not always holding them convincingly.

That was to only infuse his role in the penalties with more narrative tension.

Liverpool did seem to eventually tire, as almost symbolised in the injuries.

The minutes before penalties were PSG’s only spell of control, their midfield spraying the ball around with such assurance.

What mattered was the assurance in penalties, and they more than displayed that. There was a foreshadowing of the way it was going to go through the manner that Vitina nonchalantly stroked home a kick that Alisson should probably have stopped.

Donnarumma then of course saved from Darwin Nunez, who it was almost impossible not to feel sorry for. The Italian followed by getting down in an even more impressive manner from Curtis Jones. Desire Doue then sent it into the corner, to send PSG into the quarter-finals.

So much suddenly feels so different, not least the potential path of this Champions League season.

Declan Rice’s equaliser denied Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim a much-needed win but Arsenal’s faltering Premier League title challenge suffered another damaging blow in a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford on Sunday.

The Gunners sit 15 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool, now with just one game in hand, with their focus beginning to turn to holding off the chasing pack for a place in next season’s Champions League.

Bruno Fernandes’ stunning free-kick put United ahead in first-half stoppage time.

The Red Devils, though, could not hold on for just a sixth Premier League win in 16 games under Amorim as Rice swept home 16 minutes from time.

A point leaves United down in 14th.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was taking charge of his 200th Premier League match.

The Spaniard’s 118 wins in that time places him only behind a stellar cast of Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and Alex Ferguson in the English top flight.

But his wait for a league title looks set to continue with Arsenal on course to finish second for the third consecutive season.

United have had three permanent managers and an interim during Arteta’s five years in charge of Arsenal.

Amorim said he knows he will not get the time Arteta did to turn around a sinking ship at Old Trafford.

The discontent among the home support could be seen around the stands with many taking part in a protest by wearing black over what they perceive as “the death” of their club.

Arsenal had failed to score in either of their previous two league games to realistically wave goodbye to their hopes of a first title in 21 years.

Despite still missing the attacking quartet of Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, the Gunners hit back in stunning fashion to thrash PSV Eindhoven 7-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Infused with fresh confidence, Arsenal started on the front foot but again missed the focal point of a natural centre-forward.

Midfielder Mikel Merino has been forced to deputise up front in recent weeks and fired wide from the edge of the area with an early opening.

United have struggled for goals all season, but their skipper has remained a source of inspiration and Fernandes produced once more with a sumptuous free-kick just before half-time.

Questions will be asked over Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya’s starting position, but Fernandes still had to whip the ball over an imposing wall and back down into the visitors’ net.

If Raya was at fault for the opener, he made amends with a string of saves in the second period.

Noussair Mazraoui and Joshua Zirkzee were the first to be denied as United threatened a second on the counter-attack.

Arteta was able to throw on Martinelli on his return from a hamstring injury in the hunt for an equaliser.

Instead, it was Rice who matched Fernandes’ fine finish by arrowing a shot beyond Andre Onana from Jurrien Timber’s pass.

Amorim had dropped Rasmus Hojlund to the bench after a run of 19 games without a goal.

The Dane twice had chances to snap that streak only to be foiled by desperate Arsenal defending.

More Raya heroics followed to stop Fernandes from snatching a winner as the match entered stoppage time.

However, a draw did little for Arsenal’s title challenge.

Arteta’s men edge four points clear of third-placed Nottingham Forest and eight clear of Manchester City in fifth in the battle for a place in next season’s Champions League.

AFP