Five Biggest Stories From The Champions League This Week

The biggest competition in club football never fails to disappoint as this week, 16 teams faced off in the first leg of the play-off round. Eight ties were played in seven different countries with clubs from Scotland to Portugal all vying for a place in the last 16. Here are the five biggest stories from an action packed midweek.

Real Madrid Get The Last Laugh

In the biggest game of the week, Manchester City hosted Real Madrid. Before the game, City fans unveiled a banner with a picture of Rodri kissing his Ballon D’Or and the words: “Stop crying your heart out.” This was in response to Real Madrid’s behaviour surrounding the 2024 award going to City’s Rodri instead of Vinicius Jr. The Brazilian scored 24 goals last season while Mohamed Salah, who wasn’t even nominated, scored 25.

Manchester City banner in response to Vini Jr and Real Madrid’s behaviour when Rodri won the Balon D’or.

“Stop crying your heart out…” 👏😭 pic.twitter.com/FxZJaH2S9T

— Football Away Days (@FBAwayDays) February 11, 2025

While Manchester City fans may have been laughing at Real Madrid’s expense before the game kicked off, after the final whistle it was another story, as Jude Bellingham managed to get a late winner after Vinicius Jr had lobbed the keeper. The game finished 3-2, with Kylian Mbappe, Brahim Diaz and Bellingham on the scoresheet for the visitors and Erling Haaland managing a brace for the Citizens. Real will return to Spain with a slim advantage, but there is still everything to play for when the teams meet in Madrid next Wednesday.

Pep Guardiola said after the game that his tactics no longer work, which raises the question: is he still right for Manchester City. They currently sit in fifth in the Premier League and have the very real possibility that they could get knocked out of Europe before the Round of 16 stage. Pep signed a new deal recently, extending his tenure until 2027, so to get rid of him now would be expensive for City. Then again, they’ve splashed out again in the January transfer window, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he were to leave.

PSG Already Through?

Even though there is still a second leg to be played, PSG are as good as through already. They travelled to fellow French side Brest on Tuesday with the aim of repeating their recent 5-2 victory over them at the beginning of the month. While the scoreline was a different one, the margin of victory for the reigning champions was the same, as they walked away with a 3-0 win.

PSG dominated the match and were ahead after just over 20 minutes as Vitinha converted from the spot. Ousmane Dembele showed his class for much of the game, being a constant threat down the visitor’s right hand side. He scored two well taken goals either side of half time to put the game, and most likely the tie, beyond any doubt. It is clear now that Dembele is a class footballer, which is why it’s strange that it didn’t really work out for him at Barcelona. The deal that took him to the Spanish club has well and truly wrecked them financially, but the Frenchman has managed now to put that behind him.

Controversial Penalty Gives Brugge Slender Advantage

One of the biggest surprises this week was how well Club Brugge performed against a strong Atalanta side who are currently third in the Serie A. They just about edged possession but created a similar number of chances. The underdogs managed to sneak a win at home and put the pressure on Atalanta for next week’s game in Italy.

🚨 Atalanta manager Gasperini, furious after the penalty for Brugge: “Football is going in a direction that isn't football, led by I don't know who”.

“The players throw themselves in to steal, they all try to get a penalty. This is not spirit of football. The rules are crazy”. pic.twitter.com/6Jia3CQpee

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) February 12, 2025

The win came about in controversial fashion however, as the Belgian side were awarded a late penalty for a flailing arm that appeared to catch striker Gustaf Nilsson. Replays showed that there was contact but it was minimal between Nilsson and Swedish defender Isak Hein, however when you raise your arms like Hein did, there is always a risk that the referee will give a penalty. Nilsson took the spot kick and calmly dispatched it to give Brugge a 2-1 win.

Bayern’s Clinicality The Difference

Bayern Munich travelled to Scotland for their knockout tie against Celtic last night. Celtic Park was as energetic as ever but the crowd weren’t enough to help Celtic take an advantage against the German giants. The Scottish team had their chances to make things more difficult for Bayern, but an early goal was ruled out as Adam Idah was in an offside position and in Manuel Neuer’s eyeline when Nicolas Kuhn scored from 25 yards and Daizen Maeda failed to find the back of the net from a tight angle after rounding the German stopper.

Michael Olise’s superb strike on the stroke of half time was a huge knock to Celtic, but it boosted Bayern’s confidence as Harry Kane scored a volley from a corner soon after the restart. Maeda scored late on to give Celtic a little bit of hope going into the second leg, but the Bundesliga leaders are strong at home and realistically need just one goal to put the tie out of Celtic’s reach. Overall in this match, Celtic had the greater opportunities, but the clinicality of Bayern’s forward line is just too great for most teams to deal with.

Igor Paixao Masterclass And Mike Maignan Disasterclass

In another surprising result, Feyenoord will take a slim advantage into their second leg against AC Milan after beating the Italian side 1-0 at home on Wednesday evening. Despite losing their main striker, Santiago Gimenez, to Milan in January, the Dutch side looked impressive in front of goal, even if they only managed to find the back of the net just once. Igor Paixao was the star of the show in Rotterdam, and started early, scoring from range after just three minutes. His strike skidded off the wet surface and Mike Maignan parried the ball into the back of his own net.

Whoever picks up Igor Paixao this summer is getting an unbelievable talent.

Simply remarkable tonight against Milan. Incredible player. pic.twitter.com/2ya50oVLIX

— Elias (@EliasKokinos) February 12, 2025

Paixao almost added a second in the first half, but his curling effort hit the top of the crossbar. In the second half he set up another chance for Feyenoord with some quick feet but the opportunity was spurned. The likes of Rafael Leao, Christian Pulisic and Santiago Gimenez were unable to create clear cut chances, and the only real opportunity that Joao Felix had was well saved by Wellenreuther in the Feyenoord goal. Paixao will definitely have some interested suitors in the summer as the 24-year-old has 19 goal involvements this season already.