Once again in this competition Barca have given themselves a huge mountain to climb to get through to the next round. They managed it last time but I think Juve might be a bit smarter than PSG & maybe the referee might not be as accommodating.

Borussia Dortmund will now face Monaco tonight after a 'targeted attack' on the German team bus left it & defender Marc Bartra damaged. A letter has been found at the site of the attack but the German police have not, so far, released too many details...

Dortmund were 2 nil down by half time so did better in the second half of their rescheduled match.
Leicester restricted Atletico to just a dubious penalty,
A match that ebbed & flowed in Germany. Bayern missed a penalty which would have put them 2 up, Ronald scored 2 in the second half, Bayern have a man sent off & then Manuel Neuer in goal stopped Real putting the game out of sight.

A decent result for Leicester which means they still have a chance of progressing further.
Advantage Real in the battle of the two European giants......Bayern have to score at least 2 in the Bernabeu which is a bit of a daunting task.
Personally,I was surprised that the Dortmund-Monaco tie went ahead so soon after the bus attack.Not fair on the Germans who must still have been in a state of shock....just my opinion.

Very good result for Ajax against one of the more fancied sides left in the competition. While possession was pretty even the home side dominated all the attacking stats & were well worth the result.
Most of the excitement in the Vigo against Genk happened in the first half. The hosts looked in prime position going in at half time 3 to 1 up. Genk pulled another back after the break to make it very evenly posed going into the return leg.
It will be crowd trouble rather than football that will be the headline from the Lyon against Besiktas match. The start had to be delayed by 45 minutes as the crowd spilled onto the pitch before the start. In the game itself the hosts managed to claw themselves back into a good position by scoring 2 goals in the last 10 minutes. I am not sure that either players or fans will relish the return fixture though!!
United were undone by poor finishing in a game that they absolutely dominated. The hosts scored late on with their only shot on target in the entire game.

Once Atlético scored an early goal it was all but over for the Foxes. They gave it a real go & no one could complain at their effort. Atlético just a bit too smart for them at this level though.

The other Madrid made it look very easy indeed against the best German side around. Ronaldo scored a hat trick in what was made too look a very easy tie by the Spanish side..

Yes,a bridge too far for Leicester but they have had a magnificent run in this competition.
It will be interesting how they do next season.The players certainly didn't play for Ranieri and looked a different proposition once he had gone.
Next season,with no European adventures to look forward to,will they take their foot off the gas for Craig Shakespeare also ??

Now,Bob,I have to take issue with you over your view of the Real-Bayern game ! It certainly wasn't easy for Real as Bayern actually won 2-1 in normal time to take the game into extra time.This despite being reduced to 10 men after Vidal was harshly sent off.Also when Ronaldo scored Reals second goal he was well over a yard offside.Bayern then had to go for broke and conceded two more.
I can only think you watched the game in 747mans Nong Khai home !!

Yes Zid, I will concede that your view is probably more apt than mine..

It is, as always with football the result that counts though..

Yes,and United beat Chelsea,Cheltenham almost safe now and the pound surging.....life cant get much better for you,Bob !

I can only think you watched the game in 747mans Nong Khai home !!......No Andy, Bob certainly did NOT,As I was where ALL Sensible People would have been at that time........In Me Bed !!!!

No wonderful comebacks for Barca this time around. As I suspected they would do Juve went to protect what they had & did it in a good old fashioned Italian league style display.

For the second leg as well, the Dortmund team made more headlines than the game.
Dirty tricks springs unfortunately to mind as the German side had more than sufficient off pitch concerns to have much impact on the pitch..

I imagine that the 2 Spanish sides will be eager to miss each other & meet in the final for the second year running..

Of the 4 teams left I hope Monaco win it as they play bright,enterprising football (too good for The Spuds and Citeh).
Falcao,remember him ?? is one of their main men !
Not too fussed about the other 3,although Atletico Madrid have been beaten in extra time in two recent finals and maybe deserve to lift the trophy.

Anyway...tonight....United v Anderlecht (Europa League quarter final 2nd leg) is on at 2.05am Friday morning over here in Thailand.All to play for with the first leg ending up 1-1.

Manchester United 2 RSC Anderlecht 1 (after extra time 1-1)
United made very hard work of this and it took an extra time goal from Marcus Rashford to secure them a place in the Europa League semi finals.
Mkhitarayan scored after 12 minutes for United only for Anderlecht to equalize 20 minutes later.After that United missed chance after chance.....similar to most of their 9 home draws in the EPL this season.Worrying for United is that both Rojo and Ibrahimovic were taken off with bad knee injuries that could keep them out for the rest of the season.
At least it would give United the opportunity to play the attacking line up they had against Chelsea for the remaining matches but they will miss Ibrahimovic's 28 goal tally so far this campaign.He had a shocker last night,though.
The draw for the Europa League semi finals (as well as the Champions League) takes place later today in Nyon,Switzerland.United are joined in the draw by Ajax,Lyon and Celta Vigo.

Besiktas 2 Lyon 1 (aggregate 3-3,Lyon win 7-6 on penalties)
FC Schalke 04 3 Ajax 2 (aggregate 3-4)
KRC Genk 1 Celta Vigo 1 (aggregate 3-4)
Manchester United 2 RSC Anderlecht 1 (aggregate 3-2,after extra time)

Real Madrid v Monaco in the Champions League final ??
Ajax versus.......err.....Manchester United in the Europa League final then !

Tuesday 2nd May 2017
UEFA Champions League - Semi-Finals

Real Madrid 3-0 Atlético Madrid

I thought this was going to be a couple of competitive matches..
Unfortunately for Atlético, Cristiano Ronaldo was rather in the mood. In truth, Real were the far, far better side on the night although, until Ronaldo scored his second after 73 minutes, it did look like good goalkeeping & poor finishing might keep the visitors in the tie..

Juve are all but through to the final. Monaco will need to do something pretty spectacular in Italy to recover from the first leg, but they are known as an attacking side!!
Lyon may have scored 1 away from home in their first leg, but the home leg looks like another mountain to climb if they are going through as well.
3 semi-final first legs played so far & they are all pointing to a winner already. Tonight it is United's & Celta Vigo's turn...