Champions League
Man City 7-0 RB Leipzig: Player ratings as Haaland scores five in dominant win
Manchester City stormed into the quarter-finals of the Champions League with an utterly dominant 7-0 victory over RB Leipzig.
Erling Haaland scored five to seal a scoreline which by no means flattered City. The home side could hardly have been more on-top if they had tried and would have undoubtedly scored more goals had Pep Guardiola not withdrawn his big names early.
It was all City straight away, with Pep Guardiola’s side boasting well over 60% possession after 15 minutes, and some penalty box pinball left the dominant hosts wondering how they had not yet opened the scoring.
Fortunately for City, VAR called the referee over to penalise a handball from Benjamin Henrichs in amongst the chaos, and Haaland made no mistake from 12 yards.
Before fans could even catch their breath, Kevin De Bruyne sent a strike from range crashing against the bar but Haaland was there to sweep up and head home the rebound 77 seconds after his first goal.
City’s defending got a little scrappy after that and Ederson was fortunate not to avoid punishment for a clumsy challenge on Konrad Laimer which somehow ended up being given in the goalkeeper’s favour.
However, City’s concerns didn’t last long as Haaland completed his hat-trick by bundling home from a corner with the final kick of the first half, pouncing into action after Ruben Dias’ header had trickled across the goal-line.
The hosts’ relentless tempo continued after the break and Ilkay Gundogan added a fourth with a low strike from the edge of the box just four minutes after the restart.
Four more minutes passed before City were celebrating again. It was Haaland once more, thundering home from a corner to match the team’s all-time season scoring record with 38, and he broke it almost straight after when he tapped home another rebound to add his fifth on the evening.
Guardiola showed mercy on the hour mark by withdrawing Haaland, after which the tempo of the game died down. City were content controlling the ball and Leipzig were already dreaming of the flight home.
There was still time for a seventh, and it was the pick of the bunch. De Bruyne curled home a glorious strike from range in the dying embers, capping off what was an utterly superb performance from the Belgian.
GK: Ederson – 6/10 – A moment of madness for his collision with Laimer but atoned for it with some excellent passing.
RB: John Stones – 8/10 – Excellent in the inverted full-back role. So composed on the ball and physically dominant to give City that extra boost.
CB: Manuel Akanji – 6/10 – Can’t really say he did much wrong but Akanji definitely looked the weakest out of City’s centre-backs.
CB: Ruben Dias – 7/10 – Dominant at the back once again. Never looked under any pressure.
LB: Nathan Ake – 7/10 – Another excellent performance from Ake, who is still not actually a left-back.
DM: Rodri – 6/10 – Not his typical composed self. A few nervy passes at the back as Stones appeared to take his spotlight.
CM: Kevin De Bruyne – 10/10 – Those critics of his recent form will be keeping quiet after this one. The Belgian was back to his mesmeric best.
CM: Ilkay Gundogan – 8/10 – Sloppy in the first half but clearly found his shooting boots at the break.
RW: Bernardo Silva – 7/10 – Not as involved as a lot of his teammates but still caused plenty of problems.
ST: Erling Haaland – 10/10 – Was impressing even before the goals started flying in. Really felt like part of a whole team performance here. Absolutely unplayable.
LW: Jack Grealish – 8/10 – A constant threat down the left. Great play alongside Ake.
Substitutes
Phil Foden (55′ for Grealish) – 7/10
Riyad Mahrez (55′ for Gundogan) – 8/10
Julian Alvarez (63′ for Haaland) – 6/10
Sergio Gomez (63′ for Stones) – 6/10
Kalvin Phillips (63′ for Rodri) – 6/10
Manager
Pep Guardiola – 10/10 – Keeping faith with De Bruyne was the right call from Guardiola, whose use of Stones in midfield also a stroke of genius. Couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect evening.
GK: Janis Blaswich – 4/10 – Impressed when he wasn’t picking the ball out the back of his net. Couldn’t do anything about the goals and even went the right way for the penalty.
RB: Benjamin Henrichs – 1/10 – Unfortunate with the handball call but it summed up a challenging evening for the right-back.
CB: Willi Orban – 1/10 – Absolutely destroyed by Haaland’s power and speed. Couldn’t do anything about the City striker.
CB: Josko Gvardiol – 1/10 – On the day he was being touted as ‘The Haaland of centre-backs’, Gvardiol looked nowhere near the Norwegian’s level.
LB: David Raum – 1/10 – Seemingly decided just not to track De Bruyne. Watched on as the midfielder ran the show.
DM: Kevin Kampl – 1/10 – Hammered by Stones and Rodri. Chasing shadows all game.
DM: Amadou Haidara – 4/10 – Actually didn’t do bad at all. Held his own but was left on an island at times.
RM: Konrad Laimer – 2/10 – Deserved the free-kick when he was assaulted by Ederson but was otherwise out of the action.
AM: Emil Forsberg – 3/10 – Had the odd nice moment of movement but could never get close to his best level.
LM: Dominik Szoboszlai – 4/10 – Carried Leipzig’s attack but couldn’t do everything himself.
ST: Timo Werner – 2/10 – Barely had any chances to get involved.
Substitutes
Yussuf Poulsen (62′ for Werner) – 5/10
Andre Silva (62′ for Forsberg) – 5/10
Mohamed Simakan (62′ for Haidara) – 5/10
Dani Olmo (72′ for Szoboszlai) – 5/10
Lukas Klostermann (80′ for Henrichs) – N/A
Manager
Marco Rose – 1/10 – Kampl deep in midfield was a disastrous shout from Rose, who didn’t even make a substitution until his team were six goals down. Did he think they could turn it around at 5-0?
Player of the match – Erling Haaland (Man City)
Wolfsburg had VAR to thank for their quarter-final first leg victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the Women’s Champions League on Thursday night.
Dominique Janssen scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot midway through the second half for a handball from PSG defender Elisa de Almeida that wasn’t seen by the officials in real time.
Upon review, English referee Rebecce Welch pointed to the spot and showed De Almeida a yellow card. Having already been avoidably cautioned for dissent in the first half, that mean red for her.
Janssen calmly converted the penalty, rolling the ball into the bottom corner as eight-time Champions League winning goalkeeper Sarah Bouhaddi dived the opposite way.
PSG had earlier thought they had a penalty of their own when the impressive Sakina Karchaoui went down under pressure from Wolfsburg defender Marina Hegering. It was initially given as a foul, but when Welch consulted the pitchside monitor she changed her mind.
Shots on target were few and far between, with Janssen’s penalty one of only three between both sides. Ramona Bachmann had PSG’s best chance, forcing a save from Merle Frohms.
The second leg will take place at Wolfsburg’s Volkswagen Arena next Thursday, where the Germans will have home advantage on top of their aggregate lead.
GK: Bouhaddi (5); RB: Lawrence (7), CB: De Almeida (4), CB: Geyoro (6), LB: Karchaoui (8); CM: Hamraoui (6), CM: Jean-Francois (6), RM: Baltimore (6); AM: Bachmann (6), LM: Groenen (5); ST: Diani (6)
Subs: Fazer (6), Vangsgaard (6)
GK: Frohms (7); RB: Hendrich (7), CB: Hegering (7), CB: Janssen (7), LB: Rauch (7); CM: Oberdorf (6), CM: Lattwein (7); RM: Huth (6), AM: Roord (6), LM: Popp (7); ST: Pajor (5)
Subs: Brand (6), Jonsdottir (6), Bremer (N/A)
Player of the match – Sakina Karchaoui (PSG)
Chelsea earned a hard fought 1-0 win over Lyon in the first leg of their Women’s Champions League quarter-final at the Groupama Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Blues will now take that narrow aggregate lead into next week’s second leg at Kingsmeadow, making them slight favourites to reach the last four of the competition.
The ever-impressive Guro Reiten scored the only goal of the game in the first half, curling a delicious first-time shot past Christiane Endler with her weaker right foot after being played in by the returning Erin Cuthbert.
Lauren James almost scored a stunning second for Chelsea before the interval, running with the ball down the right and unleashing a speculative strike with her left foot that crashed into the far post and bounced clear.
Sam Kerr didn’t see very much of the ball over the course of the 90 minutes but might have thought she could have done better with a good chance early in the second that she missed the target with.
Lyon saw more of the ball and had more shots in total. But, frustratingly for the home crowd, the eight-time winners and reigning champions lacked the cutting edge quality to breakdown a resilient Chelsea back-line that included Kadeisha Buchanan against her former club.
Delphine Cascarino did hit the post early in the second half and there was a late surge of pressure in the final stages, but the leveller never came.
The only blot on an otherwise top night for Chelsea was losing Millie Bright to injury in the first half.
GK: Endler (6); RB: Carpenter (7), CB: Gilles (7), CB: Renard (7), LB: Morroni (6); CM: Horan (6), CM: Egurrola (6), CM: Marozsan (6); RW: Cascarino (7), ST: Le Sommer (5), LW: Dabritz (6)
Subs: Bechel (6), Van de Donk (7), Bacha, (6), Malard (6), Majri (7)
GK: Berger (7); RB: Perisset (7), CB: Buchanan (8), CB: Bright (7), LB: Carter (7); CM: Leupolz (7), CM: Ingle (7); RM: James (8), AM: Cuthbert (8), LM: Reiten (8), ST: Kerr (6)
Subs: Eriksson (6), Charles (6), Rytting Kaneryd (N/A), Mjelde (N/A)
Player of the match – Kadeisha Buchanan (Chelsea)
Champions League
Bayern Munich vs Arsenal – UWCL preview: TV channel, live stream, team news & prediction
Bayern Munich and Arsenal will play the first of this season’s Women’s Champions League quarter-final first legs as the competition reaches the knockout phase.
The group stage wound up back in December, making it along wait for the last eight to resume their respective quests for European glory.
Bayern are a growing force in Germany and Europe, reaching the semi-finals of this competition in two of the last four seasons. Arsenal, meanwhile, are only featuring in the Champions League at all for the third time since 2014 but, like Bayern, reached the quarters last season.
Arsenal topped their group earlier in the season, largely thanks to a surprise 5-1 thrashing of reigning champions Lyon. Bayern also enjoyed a strong group stage, inflicting Barcelona’s only defeat in any competition since last season’s final, but finishing second on goal difference.
Former Manchester City midfielder Georgia Stanway is a very familar face for Arsenal fans but has said she has grown and developed even more than she would have expected since moving to Bayern for a new challenge last summer.
Linda Dallmann has recently been ruled out for the rest of the season following an ankle injury suffered earlier this month. Fellow Germany international Giulia Gwinn is out with an ACL tear, but Carolin Simon is back in the squad.
Arsenal did not add veteran Jodie Taylor to their Champions League squad when she returned to the club last week – the deadline for squad additions had already passed.
Stina Blackstenius could return to the starting XI after illness in the build up to the last game against Reading just over a week ago limited her to a 30-minute cameo. Frida Maanum, Arsenal’s hero against Lyon, is likely to be back in midfield, with Leah Williamson returning to defence.
The double loss of Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema will still be felt massively. Losing versatile defender Steph Catley in recent weeks has also been a blow.
Bayern have won 12 consecutive games in all competitions coming into this one, a run which includes victories over Barcelona and domestic rivals Wolfsburg.
Arsenal have themselves come into decent form after a poor start to 2023, putting together successive wins over Chelsea, to win the Conti Cup, Liverpool and Reading.
But in Munich and Arsenal missing their two most potent goal threats, the advantage here – and perhaps for the whole tie – has to lie with Bayern. There is also the not so small matter of returning to the Allianz Arena for the first time since beating Barcelona, which will evoke fond memories.
Prediction: Bayern Munich 3-1 Arsenal
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