And then there were four.
Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich have joined Porto and Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals after Wednesday’s action, with the other four slots to be decided next week.
[ MORE: Europa League Thurs. preview ]
How the French and German giants joined their Portuguese and Spanish brethren was an entirely different story. Bayern used an early Shakhtar Donetsk red card to cue an onslaught, while PSG overcame a dodgy red card of its own to eliminate Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Bayern Munich 7-0 (7-0 aggregate) Shakhtar Donetsk - RECAP
- GUARDIOLA/MULLER: “We dominated”
Fans of the Ukrainian visitors will feel a bit hard done-by the red card doled out to Oleksandr Kucher for his second minute takedown of Mario Gotze in the box, but there could be little doubt about the gulf in class after Bayern unleashed a septet worth of goals.
Thomas Muller added a run of play goal to his early PK conversion, and Holger Badstuber scored on his first shot on target in UCL play. Also netting for Pep Guardiola’s men were Robert Lewandowski, Franck Ribery, Jerome Boateng and Gotze, who await the March 20 quarterfinal draw.
Chelsea 2-2 (3-3) Paris Saint-Germain - RECAP
- WATCH and VOTE: Should Zlatan have seen red?
- JPW: Three things we learned
- BOTH MANAGERS: Rescind Zlatan’s red
- MOURINHO: PSG “clever”, not quite dirty
- LUIZ: Said I wouldn’t celebrate, but I did
- ZLATAN: “Felt like had 11 babies around me”
It’s difficult to type about this match without providing a dissertation’s worth of words, but we’ll try to keep it brief.
1) Chelsea entered the game with the advantage of scoring a road goal in last month’s 1-1 draw in Paris.
2) PSG went down to 10 men when Oscar and Zlatan Ibrahimovic both went into a silly challenge and the Brazilian acted like he’d been axed in the calf.
3) Gary Cahill scored in the 81st minute to all but end PSG’s quarterfinal hopes.
4) But David Luiz headed past his old mates to send it to extra time.
5) Eden Hazard converted a penalty when Thiago Silva forgot he couldn’t use his hands.
6) Silva remembered and gave PSG the win when he used his head to make it two away goals in the draw.
7) Referee Bjorn Kuipers needs to sit a few matches out and just watch.