Uefa Champions League 2011/2012
Round of 16
Arsenal 3-0 AC Milan
agg (3-4)
Arsenal (7' Koscielny,26' Rosicky, 43' Van Persie)
After a 4-0 win last month, AC Milan may have thought they will breeze through to the next round. However, Last night's match almost left the Rossoneri weeping. It turns out, they did just enough to squeeze through.
Arsenal came out with all guns blazing and ended the first half with three goals. Cold sweats must have broken out throughout the Milan camp with Arsenal just a goal away from leveling the match. They held on and were able to make it through to the quarter-finals for the first time in five years.
In an attempt to stage the best comeback in Champion's League history, Arsenal fielded a very offensive 4-3-3 lineup but ultimately fell short. Milan upped the tempo on the second half and veered away from the sleepy Italian-style defensive football and had a few scoring opportunities of their own. Over-all an exciting match which could have gone either way up to the last whistle. In the end, Milan booted out yet another English team from the competition leaving only the vastly under performing Chelsea to uphold the English colors
Benfica 2-0 Zenit St. Petersburg
agg( (4-3)
Benfica: (Maxi Pereira 45+1, Nelson Oliveira 90+3)
Yet another exciting match was played last night courtesy of Benfica and Zenit. The Russian team came into the secon leg with a 3-2 lead and at the end of regulation time, the aggregate score would have been 3-3 if not for Nelson Oliveira's stoppage time heart-breaker or life saver depending on how you look at it.
It started out well enough for Zenit with their calm defending while sitting on their comfortable lead. The Russians almost put the nail through the home side's coffin when Aleksandr Kerzhakov and Roman Shirkov teamed up to make an attempt at goal that needed every ounce of energy for Benfica's keeper to keep out.
Soon enough, Benfica's patience paid off when their first goal came in injury time before the break.
During the second half, Zenit's defense started to open up as they tried to field an attack as well since they have already lost their advantage from the first leg. This gave Benfica the opportunity to keep pushing and counter-attacking. In the end, The Portugese side pulled off another goal to make it to the last 8.
Tonight's Matches:
Barcelona vs. Leverkusen
APOEL vs. Lyon
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