The two most successful teams in the history of the Champions League, the real Madrid (with 14 trophies) and the AC Milan (with seven) came out to defend their prestige in this competition during the first leg quarterfinals of the 2022-23 edition against Chelsea and the napoli, respectively. They managed to emerge victorious after playing at home, but their markers are not so solid and leave the door open to continue in the battle.
The Merengue team was the one that achieved the largest advantage during the day on Wednesday, beating Chelsea 2-0 with goals from Karim Benzema (21′) and Marco Asensio (74′) at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, maintaining 100 Home win percentage in the Champions League this season after beating Leipzig (2-0), Shakhtar (2-1), Celtic (5-1) and Liverpool (1-0).
Managed from the bench by Carlo Ancelottibut on the field due to the leadership and goalscoring romance of captain Benzema, the Spaniards took advantage of their two advantages to win: having an extra man, after the expulsion of Ben Chilwell, and arriving at a better football moment, since the Chelsea had only won one of their last five games in the Premier League.
“We played a full game at home and we will have to do it again in London to reach the semi-final. We started with the aim of making sure we established an advantage for the second game and we did that”, highlighted Ancelotti, who last year became the coach with the most titles in Champions League history, reaching four, two of them directing to the real Madrid.
Although the merengue team does not lead The Spanish league having a difference of 13 points less than Barcelona, it has had a more consistent season than Barcelona Chelsea as for their local championship with only five defeats against 11 for the English, who have also been affected on the bench by having three coaches between August and April (Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter and Frank Lampard).
Just the first leg of the quarterfinals against real Madrid It marked the beginning of the new era for Frank Lampard on the Chelsea bench, but the result was not positive and now they are betting on reversing everything by playing at home in London.
“I think we had some opportunities and there were some good things, but the result is reality. I have told the players that special things can happen at Stamford Bridge. Real Madrid is a very good team, but we have to believe that we can turn around”, explained the English coach.
Although the award for Best Man of the Match (MVP) was won by Vinícius Junior, it was Karim Benzema who took the spotlight in the statistics for reaching 90 goals in the Champions League, the fourth player in history to reach that figure behind Robert Lewandowski , Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The return will be played at the Stamford Bridge stadium in England next Tuesday and puts as favorite real Madrid to reach his third consecutive semifinal, since he has 80% effectiveness in solving European qualifiers when he has gone with a two-goal advantage in the first leg; in fact, his last backflip with this marker was in 2004.
Milan, the executioner of Napoli in 10 days
In the last leg of the quarterfinals, Milan defeated Napoli 1-0 with a goal from the Algerian Ismael Bennacer (40′). Although it is not an advantage that guarantees a place in the semifinals, it means a hard blow for his rival, since in the last 10 days he has beaten him twice (once in Serie A and another in the Champions League) with a deficit of five goals in favor and zero against.
Napoli, which is sweeping the Italian championship 16 points ahead of its closest rivals (Lazio) and is poised to win its first Scudetto since 1990, has lost just five games in all competitions this season and two of them now. they owe it to Milan.
The defeat of napoli It was marked by two main causes: the loss due to injury of their scorer, Victor Osimhen, and the expulsion of the containment André Zambo Anguissa, which forced them to modify the offensive style that they have manifested throughout the season for a more conservative unemployed. In addition, they lost defenseman Kim Min-Jae for the second game due to an accumulation of bookings.
“We can turn things around in the second leg because we have a strong mentality, strong players and a strong coach. We knew that Milan is a great team, we put in a good performance and we need to replicate it at home, when we play at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium,” said Neapolitan midfielder Eljif Elmas.
Next Tuesday history will be defined and, whichever side wins, it will tell an interesting story: Milan seeks its first semi-final of Champions League since 2007, while Napoli wants to reach this round for the first time.
