The Champions League play-offs got off with a bang on Tuesday night, as Jude Bellingham scored an injury-time winner in a five-goal thriller at the Etihad Stadium.
The Manchester City vs Real Madrid clash was the big Champions League 2025 news of the week, and a treat for the SBOTOP football fans throughout Europe. The two pre-tournament favourites traded blow for blow, and Pep Guardiola’s Sky Blues’ threw away an important lead, as they have for much of the past two or three months.
Erling Haaland twice gave City the lead, first on 19 minutes and the hosts stayed ahead until the half-hour when Kylian Mbappe levelled with an inaccurate shot. Haaland made it 2-1 from the penalty spot with just 10 minutes of normal time remaining, but substitute Brahim Diaz drew Los Blancos level again. And the Sky Blues’ night got even worse when Bellingham latched onto a ball from Vinicius Junior and fired home to give Carlo Ancelotti’s team a vital lead ahead of the next leg in seven days time.
City defender John Stones said there was “anger and frustration” in the camp immediately after the match, and Guardiola will hope to channel that before his team heads to the Santiago Bernabeu on 19th February. In the meantime, the Sky Blues have a top four-chasing Premier League clash against Newcastle United, while Los Blancos are away to Osasuna in La Liga.
Tuesday’s all-France clash between Brest and PSG turned out to be rather more one-sided, as Les Parisiens ran out 3-0 winners. Last season, the Brittany men of Brest secured Champions League football for the first time in the club’s history, edging out Lille on the last day of the season, and they have coped well amongst Europe’s elite.
But the underdogs have it all to do now when they head to the Parc des Princes after a first-half penalty from Vitinha and a double from the red-hot Ousmane Dembele gave them a tough old night in their home tie. This was a result the Champions League 2025 betting odds took notice of, and it was a strong statement from the French champions.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, three second-half goals gave Borussia Dortmund a 3-0 first-leg lead over Sporting Lisbon with a home tie to come, while Serie A giants Juventus won 2-1 at home to PSV Eindhoven to put that tussle perfectly in the balance.
Rossoneri’s bad night in Rotterdam
On Wednesday, there was a surprise result in the Netherlands as Serie A giants AC Milan put themselves under pressure after losing their first leg to Feyenoord, and it was a howler from keeper Mike Maignan which gifted the Dutch a lead on a night which took the Rossoneri 45 minutes to get going. There were only three minutes on the clock when Igor Paixao scored the winner, his low shot bouncing over the Milan keeper’s dive at the near post, and Feyenoord’s Brazilian striker almost made it two when his superb drive cannoned back off the crossbar. The Italians rallied in the second half, but they couldn’t break down the Dutch resistance, and so Milan have plenty more work to do back at the San Siro.
Atalanta just missed out on an automatic qualification spot, denied a win when they met Barcelona at the end of the league stage. That game finished 2-2 and left Le Dea with a play-off and it was Club Brugge, the lowest ranked team in 24th place in the table, in their way.
But there was more misery for an Italian side as their Belgian hosts picked up a 2-1 first leg lead. Brugge started well and went ahead when Ferran Jutgla fired a bullet into the top left corner, but La Dea was level before the break as Mario Pasalic met a cross from Davide Zappacosta and headed home. There was a late twist to come though as Gustaf Nilsson won and converted a penalty in injury time to put this tie in the balance.
Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich came away from Glasgow with a 2-1 lead over Celtic as Michael Olise, with his 11th goal of the season, and Harry Kane put the Bavarians in charge. Daizen Maeda halved the deficit with a late header, but Vincent Kompany’s team will surely finish the job in Munich next week.
And in the final Wednesday clash, Benfica took a 1-0 advantage away from Monaco after the hosts played out the second half with 10 men. Just after the break Vangelis Pavlidis gave Benfica a lead and, on 52 minutes, Monaco midfielder Al-Musrati picked up a second yellow card. and the hosts were probably happy to head to Portugal still in the tie.
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