Daily juice report - Premier league teams fumbled the ucl
Well, all the second legs to the Champions League “Round of 16” are complete, and I’m sure EPL fans everywhere are in shambles. Of the six teams featured from the English Premier League, four were sent packing yesterday. The only two that survived played severely outweighed games - coming in as the huge favorites.
CHELSEA VS PSG - What on earth happened here. Chelsea came in hot across all competitions and just fell apart at the end of the first leg. They never got it back either, losing 3-0 in the second leg. It’s like they didn’t even try… PSG on the other hand was playing like dogshit but seem to have used the English sides poor form for some momentum.
MANCHESTER CITY VS REAL MADRID - I expected Real Madrid to win this matchup, but not to breeze by the dominant English side as easy as they did. 5-1 final score on aggregate, you have to question what Manchester City were thinking through this fixture.
ARSENAL VS LEVERKUSEN - As if tying the first leg wasn’t bad enough, only putting up two goals at home against a team like Leverkusen in itself is also a defeat. They are great in the Bundesliga, but any of these teams should be able to handle the likes of Leverkusen. Although they won, I’m still left confused as to where ALL of Arsenal’s attacking power went the last two games.
BODO VS SPORTING CP - Okay hear me out… this was the BEST matchup (like I said it would be, if you watched our video). Sporting CP put on an absolute show in the second leg, coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win 5-3 on aggregate. The energy was immaculate, the stakes were high and Sporting as a whole really came through. I truly feel for Bodo fans right now though, as who knows the next time they will get so close to the round of 8.
BAYERN VS ATALANTA -This went almost entirely according to plan. Bayern dominates midfield possession and controls the tempo, absolutely whallops Atalanta’s weak defense, and possibly let in a goal or two when it’s all said and done. We knew this would happen, we predicted it, we just didn’t realise Bayern was going to come out the gate with a 6-1 lead after the first leg.
BARCELONA VS NEWCASTLE UNITED - Again, what on earth happened to the English side here… You held it even through the first 120 combine minutes of soccer, 2-2. All of a sudden Lamine Yamal scores right before the half and what happens next? Boom, 4 goals in one half… That is an absurd drop-off and again I expected lots of goals, just not so one-sided.
LIVERPOOL VS GALATASARY - So many attacking options for Liverpool, yet the still struggled against this minor Turkish club. They won 4-0 at home, but that’s how that game should have gone - not an anomaly. What was a phenomenon was their stunning 1-0 loss in the first leg. These fans are lucky that their team had some resilience, kept their composure and took it home. They could have been the fifth EPL team to bite the dust.
TOTTENHAM VS ATLETICO MADRID - Wow. Just… wow. I really don’t have much to say. I knew Tottenham could potentially keep it close, but I also knew they would just fall apart completely at some point. I didn’t think it would be right out the gates, but they made it easy for Atletico.
All thing considered, we predicted 7 of the 8 teams to advance correctly, that’s one hell of a way call some soccer. Let’s tune back in next week for the UCL Round of 8.
In other news, there’s not much. All I got for today is that Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons has a collapsed lung. This completely came out of nowhere to me, as he had exited his last game early in the first quarter with back spasms, but a collapsed lung is a whole different ballgame. It was noted that the extent of the collapse was mild, and he’ll be reevaluated in two weeks by their medical staff. As a Pistons fan, I would definitely still be worried. With the Cavs and Celtics both heating up in the East - it’s not a secure one-seed. They need to stay vigilant while Cunningham is out and prepare for him to miss the beginning of the playoffs if recovery is harder than expected. If he takes his time, they could fall to the second or third seed - taking a harder route to the playoffs.
That’s it for today. March Madness started so don’t forget to take a look at our predictions! Some crazy things have already gone down, but that’s a story for tomorrow.