Real Madrid and Napoli qualified today for the quarterfinals of the Champions League by beating Liverpool and Eintracht Frankfurt, respectively, in the second leg of the round of 16.
The “Merengue”, top winner of the Champions League with 14 titles, defeated the English team 1-0 with a goal from Frenchman Karim Benzema in the final minutes of the match and closed the series 6-2 in his favor at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.
Liverpool tried to reverse the series, but Madrid did not give rise to that illusion. The team led by the German Jürgen Klopp could not specify the few situations that he arranged at the feet of the Uruguayan Darwin Núñez and the Egyptian Mohamed Salah during the first stage, while in the second half they lacked ideas.
Real Madrid, with the power of their individualities, put the visit in trouble with the appearances of the Brazilian Vincius Jr and the Croatian Luka Modric, while the Frenchman Eduardo Camavinga was one of the most prominent in the team led by the Italian Carlo Ancelotti .
At the end of the game, Benzema, the scorer of the last edition, received a pass from the ground from Vinicius and made it 1-0.
For its part, Napoli, who had the entry of striker Giovanni Simeone with ten minutes to go, beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0, with two goals from Nigerian Victor Osimhen and one from Poland’s Piotr Zielinski, at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium. from Naples.
As for the match, the Italian team dominated from the first minutes, although they were only able to open the scoring at the end of the first half through their striker, Victor Osimhen, who with a precise header established the partial 1-0.
In the complement, the Nigerian appeared again to seal his double. After a great collective play, he only had to push the ball to make it 2-0.
With the advantage obtained in the first leg and thanks to the two goals in the second leg, the team led by Luciano Spaletti dominated with much more calm, with the peace of mind of knowing that they were in the quarterfinals. To seal the pass to the next instance, Piotr Zielinski established the 3 to 0 by means of a penalty.
In this way, Napoli entered the top eight of the most important competition at club level in Europe for the first time.
In addition, there will be three Italian teams (Napoli, Inter and Milan) in the Champions League quarterfinals, something that has not happened for 17 years.
Those classified to the quarterfinals are: Real Madrid, Napoli, Manchester City, Inter, Benfica, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Milan.
The draw for the Champions League quarterfinals will take place on Friday, March 17, at the home of European football in Nyon, Switzerland.
The first legs of the quarterfinals will take place between Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 April, and the second legs between 18 and 19 April. The semifinals will be on May 9/10 and May 16/17, and the final on Saturday June 10.
