Kylian Mbappe stole the show with a stunning hat trick, while an injured Erling Haaland watched from the bench as Real Madrid sent Manchester City crashing out of the Champions League on Wednesday.
Mbappe struck in the fourth, 33rd and 61st minutes, sealing Madrid’s 3-1 win and a commanding 6-3 aggregate triumph over the reigning champions in their knockout clash.
“This was a complete performance – attack, defense, with and without the ball, we showed incredible quality,” Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. “Almost the perfect night.”
With Haaland sidelined by a knee injury sustained in Premier League action on Saturday, City lacked firepower and struggled to match Madrid’s intensity.
Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain humiliated French rival Brest 7-0, wrapping up a staggering 10-0 aggregate win to book a round-of-16 showdown against either Liverpool or Barcelona.
PSV Eindhoven ousted Juventus in the only one of the eight playoffs this week that went to extra time. Defender Ryan Flamingo scored in the 98th minute for a 3-1 win on the night and a 4-3 victory on aggregate. United States international Timothy Weah scored for Juventus.
“Honestly, we slipped up,” Weah said. “I felt like they were more aggressive on the night, and we lacked a bit of aggression and hunger.”
In the early game Wednesday, Borussia Dortmund started with a 3-0 lead at home to Sporting Lisbon and was barely stretched in a 0-0 draw. Sporting’s Champions League campaign imploded after coach Rúben Amorim left for Manchester United in November.
Mbappe’s first goal of the two-leg playoff in Manchester was a lucky miscue, a looping effort off his shin to level at 1-1 in what ended a 3-2 win.
His three goals in Madrid were classy and decisive. A first-time lob over City goalkeeper Ederson – who perhaps advanced too far, too soon – was followed by a low shot after leaving defender Joško Gvardiol on the turf.
The third was a powerful left-footer from the edge of the penalty area after he lured six City players toward him.
“I have always said I didn’t come here simply to complete a dream,” said Mbappe, a boyhood Madrid fan who never won a Champions League title at Monaco or PSG. “I want to play well, I want to mark an era.”
Coach Pep Guardiola’s injury-hit side – with Ballon d’Or winner Rodri out since September and Kevin De Bruyne now rarely starting – has looked like a shadow of the heavyweight rival that met Madrid in each of the past three seasons, when the winner went on to lift the trophy.
PSG has not lost anywhere since a Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich three months ago, and the playoff against Brest proved a total mismatch.
Brest had impressed in its first European season but went out with a whimper at Parc des Princes after a 3-0 loss in the home leg.
Wingers Bradley Barcola and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored in the first half. Midfielder Vitinha, Desire Doue, left-back Nuno Mendes, striker Goncalo Ramos and Senny Mayulu netted after the break. PSG also beat Brest 5-2 in a French league game this month.
With Amorim as coach, Sporting was unbeaten in four Champions League games and stood second in the 36-team standings. The team he left behind went winless in six Champions League games under two different coaches.
Dortmund also fired a coach midseason, and newly hired Niko Kovac now has two wins on the European stage to offset two straight losses in the German league.
Still, Sporting’s prospects of being in the Champions League next season look better than Dortmund’s.
Portugal’s champion advances directly to the next league phase, and Sporting currently leads the league, two points ahead of Benfica. Dortmund is 11th in the Bundesliga and may need to win the Champions League title to qualify for next season’s competition.
Real Madrid, PSG, Dortmund and PSV join Bayern Munich, Benfica, Club Brugge and Feyenoord, which all advanced Tuesday, as playoff round winners who will be unseeded in Friday’s draw. They will host first-leg games on March 4-5.
The top eight in the 36-team standings three weeks ago – Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa – skipped the playoff round and are seeded in the round-of-16 draw. They will host second legs on March 11-12.
The round of 16 will follow a new, tennis-like seeded bracket in the expanded competition format.
Madrid, as the 11th-place team in the standings and No. 11 seed, already knew its next opponent would be Atletico or Leverkusen, which placed fifth and sixth, respectively.
Top-seeded Liverpool will play No. 15 PSG or No. 16 Benfica.
