The first leg of the Champions league quarterfinals has come and gone and the second leg will follow up next week. The matchups revealed a great about the sides and how balanced or imbalanced the matchups are.
Madrid Too Good For Galatasaray
The Spanish champs didn't have a great match, but Galatasaray was not dangerous and looks like a long shot to advance. Madrid will be without Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso but the Turks will be without leading goal scorer Burak Yilmaz; this should balance out the odds a bit. If Galatasaray hopes to win in the next match, they need new acquisitions Wesley Sneijder and Didier Drogba to work magic; Sneijder had a solid game despite limited time but Drogba was erratic.
Madrid also proved that Diego Lopez is a great option in net as the keeper made essentially saves to prevent the rivals from attaining the away goal.
Cristiano Ronaldo Top Player in Europe?
Ronaldo scored his tournament leading 9th goal and looked primed to score a second. Late in the game he received a beautiful cross with his chest and proceeded to volley it. If not for a defensive block, he would have added his 10th of the tournament. Despite never achieving said feat, Ronaldo ran through the Galatasaray defense with facility and looked as good as he has all season.
Barcelona's Defense Is Not Very Good
Many will complain about Zlatan Ibrahimovic possibly being offside on the first goal, but how is it possible that Blaise Matuidi was allowed to stand right outside the box and had a free lane to fire through for the tying goal. The team should have tightened up during the waning moments of the game, but looked rattled under pressure. That theme permeated the entire match as Barcelona gave up a plethora of good chances to Paris Saint-Germain. Ibrahimovic seemed to unsettle the defense of the Catalans quite a bit as he was the catalyst on a number of chances.
Borussia Dortmund a Better Side than Malaga, but the Spaniards Seems Primed To Upset
Dortmund had a number of chances to defeat the surprising Spanish side, but failed to connect. Now the two sides return to Germany level at 0-0 and with the Germans having all the pressure to perform for their home crowd. Malaga has already broken history and while they certainly want to in the semifinals, there is no doubt that they enter the second leg with a feeling of accomplishment and less pressure. This alone could create more fluid play and more opportunistic scoring chances. Don't expect Dortmund to run away with this second leg by any stretch of the imagination.
Will the Real Bayern Munich Please Stand Up?
They have runaway with the Bundesliga but have not always looked like a top rate European side in this tournament. They managed to shut down Juventus at home, but the crucial second leg will tell more about this team than any match in this tournament. Will Bayern continue to dominate or will they implode as they did in the second leg against Arsenal in the round of 16?