For soccer fans worldwide, the pinnacle of the club side of the sport is the Champions League. During the weeks of April 7 and 14, Champions League action was in full force as the final eight teams competed for a spot in the semifinals. The Champions League quarterfinals are always a special occasion, but this year was particularly special as the eight teams combined to break the scoring records for both the first legs and the entirety of the quarterfinal ties.
This year, the quarterfinals got off to a quick start on Tuesday, April 9, with Arsenal against Bayern Munich and Manchester City vs. Real Madrid. The games kicked off at 2:00 Central Standard Time, and at just 2:02 the scoring began, with Manchester City’s midfielder Bernardo Silva scoring off of a freekick from so far away that it caught Real Madrid’s goalkeeper off guard as he was more concentrated on a potential cross. Ten minutes later, Real Madrid tied the game with a Manchester City own-goal. In the same minute in the other game, Arsenal took the lead through a precise finish from their star forward Bukayo Saka. The flurry of early goals continued with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid each scoring before the 20th minute.
In London, Arsenal, the home team, would score the only goal of the second half with just 14 minutes left to play. However, both teams would leave the game frustrated as they felt they should’ve been awarded penalties at different points. Arsenal in particular claimed a penalty with almost no time left, which wasn’t awarded. While this game could have had another three goals in the second half if the penalties had been called, the other game did double its total goals in the second half. Manchester City’s star academy prospect Phil Foden scored an incredible curling effort to tie the game. Just five minutes later, City took the lead back before Real Madrid ended the scoring frenzy after only having trailed for eight minutes. Day one of the quarterfinals ended with a 2-2 and a 3-3 scoreline.
While only eight goals were needed from the Atletico Madrid vs. Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona v.s Paris Saint Germain (PSG) games to tie the quarterfinal first-leg total scoring record, no one expected it to happen. It took twice as long to get the first goal as the day before, with Atletico Madrid patiently waiting for four minutes before getting the scoring started again. However, the wait for the second goal was much longer on day two with Atletico getting their second just after the half-hour mark. Barcelona’s forward Raphina opened the scoring in the other game just before halftime as Dortmund and PSG went into the half scoreless.
Barcelona’s lead only lasted three minutes into the second half before PSG flipped the game on its head, scoring two goals in three minutes with former Barcelona forward Ousmane Dembele scoring and controversially celebrating against his former team. Barcelona became the third team of the day to score two unanswered goals, taking back the lead in the 77th minute through substitute defender Andreas Christensen after Raphina scored his second of the game in the 62nd. The final goal of the day was scored late by Dortmund, giving them a chance in the second leg and giving fans the finishing touch of a record-breaking two days of soccer.
Barcelona and PSG started the action in the reverse fixtures as Barcelona’s Raphina opened the scoring with his third contribution to the eight squads’ record pursuit. The next key moment of the round however was not a goal but instead a red card to Barcelona which would prove detrimental, as PSG would go on to score four unanswered and beat Barcelona by a total aggregate score of 6-4.
While PSG was methodically dismantling Barcelona, Atletico and Dortmund were engaged in a goal-scoring frenzy. Dortmund scored two after the half-hour mark to take their first lead of the game into the half having been down two with just 10 minutes left in leg one. This lead didn’t last long however as Atletico benefited from a Dortmund own goal four minutes out of the break and went on to take back their lead with just under thirty minutes left to play. However, Dortmund’s comeback was not in vain as they once again scored two quick goals to regain the advantage, the second of which officially broke the scoring record as Dortmund held on to win 5-4.
After the chaos of the first three days, day four was relatively tame as the four teams added only three goals to the already record-breaking tally. Madrid scored in the 12th minute and held that lead until Manchester City legend midfielder Kevin De Bruyne leveled the tie in the 76th minute. Bayern Munich scored the only goal in their tie just before City did to break the deadlock and defeat Arsenal 3-2 on aggregate. Madrid and City on the other hand could not break their 4-4 deadlock even after extra time and penalties were required. Madrid won the shootout 4-3 sending the tournament’s all-time winningest team back to a fourth straight semifinal and their 12th in the past 14 years.
A grand total of 34 goals were scored in this year’s quarterfinal, breaking the previous record by four goals or in other words, breaking it by the Bayern vs. Arsenal first leg. The scoring frenzy was a gift to all fans of the sport, who experienced four days of nonstop action.
