David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images
It was a good day for the English Premier League at the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.
Liverpool blew out Benfica on Tuesday, winning 3-1, while Manchester City squeaked by Atletico Madrid 1-0.
Below, we’ll break down the day’s winners and losers in first-leg action.
Winner: Phil Foden
Phil Foden came on for Manchester City in the second half as a substitute. Two minutes later, his nutmeg assist to Kevin De Bruyne finally unlocked Atletico’s staunch defense.
A huge moment. A massive player.
Loser: Diego Simeone
The plan for Atletico was predictably simple: Play stout defense and keep things close before heading back to Spain for the second leg.
The issue throughout much of this game was that Atletico parked the bus so far into the back of the lot, they couldn’t even see the proverbial store.
Atletico created a chance or two on the counter, and perhaps if Antoine Griezmann had more pace at this stage in his career or had the Spanish side been more clinical on the break, it might have worked to their advantage.
Instead, they’ll be playing catch-up in the second leg.
Winner and Loser: Ibrahima Konate
It was the best of times and the worst of times for Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate.
He scored the game’s opening goal, so that was the good:
But then he completely whiffed on Benfica’s lone goal, allowing the Portuguese side to cut the 2-0 deficit in half.
All’s well that ends well, but it was quite the day for Konate.
Loser: Benfica’s Already Slim Hopes to Advance
Beating Liverpool is hard enough. But trying to recover from a two-goal deficit is a huge hurdle to overcome.
Especially when former Porto player Luis Diaz is there to torture his once-rivals, like he did on Tuesday with a goal and an assist.
Talk about adding insult to injury. It can’t feel good for Benfica supporters to see Diaz play a starring role, especially now that Benfica’s UCL hopes hang on a thread because of it.
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