The last two first legs of the round of 16 delivered their verdict this Wednesday evening, with the victories of Real Madrid at Atalanta Bergamo (1-0) and Manchester City against Mönchengladbach (2-0).
The Madrid hero is French and is called Ferland Mendy, author of a beautiful right strike five minutes from the end of regulation time.
Before this meeting, neither Spanish team (Barcelona, Sevilla, Atlético) nor Italian (Juventus, Lazio) had managed to avoid defeat, an unusual record at this stage of the competition.
Bergamo, quarter-finalist unhappy against PSG, had all his chances at home against Real, in form in the league but deprived of Benzema (injury to the adductors), in addition to injuries, among others, Hazard, Carvajal, Ramos , and Marcelo.
Very quickly, Zinedine Zidane's players find themselves in numerical superiority (17th), but only Casemiro manages to worry the Italian goalkeeper, Gollini (45 + 1).
Back from the locker room, Modric (48th) and Vinicius (53rd) blow a wind of panic in the Italian camp, until the deliverance by Mendy.
Full box for England
Played in Budapest, the poster between Borussia Mönchengladbach (with Plea but without Marcus Thuram) and Manchester City logically turned to the advantage of the English, who opened the scoring by Silva at the half hour, then increased the score thanks to to Jesus (65th).
The German club (8th in the Bundesliga), who had not played a C1 knockout match for 43 years and who offered themselves in the league Bayern and Dortmund last month, did not hold the comparison against the leader of the Premier League, who has lined up his 19th success in a row.
With Liverpool and Chelsea, England is a hit.