All to Play for in Champions League Quarterfinals as Mbappe Looks to Rekindle Form for PSG

Eighteen goals. Talking points aplenty. And, crucially, all four matchups are still very much alive.

The Champions League quarterfinals are certainly living up to their billing heading into the second legs.

If the drama wasn't enough on Tuesday when Real Madrid drew 3-3 at home to defending champion Manchester City and Bayern Munich was held 2-2 at Arsenal, there was even more on Wednesday as Barcelona won 3-2 at Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid conceded late in its 2-1 home win over Borussia Dortmund.

It sets up some intriguing plotlines.

Is this the end of Kylian Mbappe's hopes of finally winning a Champions League title in his last season at PSG, or can he rediscover his best form to spark a turnaround at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys? After all, he scored a hat trick in his last visit to Barcelona, in 2021.

Can Madrid, the record 14-time European champion, lean on its mythical status in this competition to end City's title defense? Remember, City thrashed Madrid 4-0 in the second leg of the semifinals last season after a first-leg draw in Spain.

Will Bayern keep going in Europe in a season when Germany's top club has abjectly surrendered its Bundesliga title?

And can Atletico hold out in front of Dortmund's storied “Yellow Wall” and get back to the semifinals for the first time since 2017?

Here's a closer look at the four matches:

TUESDAY:

BARCA'S RUN

When Xavi Hernández stunned Barcelona in January by saying he'd had enough of his team's inexplicable losses, he added he hoped his players would respond to his shock therapy by playing better before his summer exit. That ploy appears to have worked — Barcelona has yet to lose in 13 games since Xavi said he was renouncing the final year of his contract.

Reaching the Champions League semifinals would be a step forward for a team that hasn't reached that stage since 2018-19. It would also boost the debt-ridden club's finances with an additional 12.5 million euros ($13.3 million) in prize money.

While Xavi has rejuvenated his team by giving bigger roles to teenagers Lamine Yamal and, especially, defender Pau Cubarsí in recent weeks, he will again turn to the established players Barca signed at considerable expense two seasons ago after they led the team in Paris. Like Raphinha, who scored twice in the first leg, and Robert Lewandowski, who will be well rested after serving a suspension over the weekend.

PSG will need an improved performance from Mbappe, who failed to hit the target from three shots, lost the ball 13 times and was caught offside three times.

THRIVING IN ADVERSITY

Adversity seems to be bringing the best out of Dortmund this season, so a one-goal deficit to Atlético Madrid from the first leg might be just the challenge needed to motivate Edin Terzić’s team. Dortmund beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday despite Karim Adeyemi’s sending-off but the win came at the expense of injuries to forwards Sébastien Haller and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens.

Dortmund’s league campaign has been disappointing after almost winning the Bundesliga last season but the team has shone in the Champions League, finishing top of a group containing PSG, AC Milan and Newcastle and then finishing the job against PSV Eindhoven at home to reach the quarterfinals.

Atletico is reviving memories of that spell from 2014-17 when it got to the final twice — losing both times to Real Madrid — and the semifinals once under current coach Diego Simeone.

WEDNESDAY:

TOUGH TASK

Madrid might be the king of European soccer, but the team has a tough task heading to Etihad Stadium. City hasn't lost any of its last 27 matches in all competitions, and is unbeaten in the Champions League in 22 matches — since a 3-1 loss at Madrid in the semifinals in 2021-22. Indeed, the defending champions have scored exactly three goals in each of their nine matches in the competition this season — an unprecedented achievement.

Most of the spotlight is on Erling Haaland, whose performances aren't matching those of last season — despite being the top scorer in the Premier League with 20 goals and tied for the second most in the Champions League with six. Haaland failed to score in either of the games against Madrid last year and was well-shackled by Antonio Rudiger again last week. With Aurelien Tchouaméni suspended, Nacho is likely to partner Rudiger at center back.

KANE A PAIN

Put simply, Harry Kane loves playing against Arsenal. After converting a penalty at Emirates Stadium in the first leg, make it 15 goals in 18 games against the team that was his biggest foe when the England captain played in the Premier League with Tottenham. He was part of a Bayern attack that was a menace on the counterattack last week, causing Arsenal's defense more problems than it has had in any game this season.

The second leg might be different, though, with Bayern expected to have more of the ball and Arsenal playing on the counterattack, hitting Bayern's often-fragile defense through the pace of wingers Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. Arsenal has only reached the semifinals once (in 2009) since getting to the final in 2006 and losing to Barcelona. Bayern, a six-time European champion, has lost in the quarterfinals in each of the past three seasons.

Jannik Sinner claimed his second consecutive Australian Open championship on Sunday, never facing a single break point and using his complete game to outplay and frustrate Alexander Zverev for a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory in the final.
Sinner, a 23-year-old Italian, is the youngest man to leave Melbourne Park with the trophy two years in a row since Jim Courier in 1992-93, The Associated Press reported.
Sinner rose to No. 1 last June, remaining there for every week since, and the gap between him and No. 2-ranked Zverev was pronounced as can be in Rod Laver Arena. This was the first Australian Open final between the men at No. 1 and No. 2 since 2019, when No. 1 Novak Djokovic defeated No. 2 Rafael Nadal — also in straight sets.
Here’s how dominant Sinner has been since the start of last season: He has won three of the five major tournaments, including the US Open in September, and his record in that span is 80-6 with a total of nine tournament titles. His current unbeaten run covers 21 matches, dating to last year.
The only thing that’s clouded the past 12 months for Sinner, it seems, is a doping case in which he was cleared by a ruling that was appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. He tested positive for a trace amount of an anabolic steroid twice last March but blamed it on an accidental exposure involving two members of his team who have since been fired. Sinner initially was exonerated in August; a hearing in the WADA appeal is scheduled for April.
While Sinner became the eighth man in the Open era (which began in 1968) to start his career 3-0 in Grand Slam finals, Zverev is the seventh to be 0-3, adding this loss to those at the 2020 US Open and the 2024 French Open.
Those earlier setbacks both came in five sets. This contest was not that close. Not at all.
There truly was only one moment that felt as if it contained a hint of tension. It was late in the second set, which Zverev was two points from owning when he led 5-4 and got to love-30 on Sinner’s serve. But a break point — and a set point — never arrived there.
Zverev not got closer, dropping the next four points, making it 5-all. Sinner then emerged with the ensuing tiebreaker. No surprise there: He went 4-0 in those set-deciders over the past two weeks and has grabbed 16 of his past 18.
A year ago, Sinner went through a lot more trouble to earn his first Slam, needing to get past Novak Djokovic — who quit one set into his semifinal against Zverev on Friday because of a torn hamstring — first, before erasing a two-set deficit in the final against 2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev.
Beating Zverev allowed Sinner to become the first man since Nadal at the French Open in 2005 and 2006 to follow up his first Grand Slam title by repeating as the champion at the same tournament a year later.

All to Play for in Champions League Quarterfinals as Mbappe Looks to Rekindle Form for PSG