In the final four of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League are two teams from Group B – [Barcelona (Group Winner) and Tottenham Hotspur (Runners-up)], a team from Group C – [Liverpool (Runners-up)], and a team from Group E – [Ajax (Runners-up)].
April 16, 2018
Juventus 1-2(2-3 agg) Ajax
Juventus – Cristiano Ronaldo 28’
Ajax – Donny van de Beek 34’ Matthijs de Ligt 67’
A dominant display from Ajax brought about a successive quarter-final elimination of Juventus in the Champions League.
A ‘1-1’ first leg result looked to be good enough for Juventus to move into the semi-finals after Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 6th-goal of the competition to give the home team the lead in the 28th-minute that lasted for 6 minutes.
Donny van de Beek sent the match into the break on level terms at 1-1 for Ajax to come out and outplay Juventus in the second-half and deservingly awarded with winning goal in the 67th-minute when captain Matthijs de Ligt rose to head in a corner kick for the winning goal in Turin.
De Ligt is the youngest Dutch player to score in a UEFA Champions League knockout match since 1996.
Barcelona 3-0 (4-0 agg) Manchester United
Barcelona – Lionel Messi 16’ 20’ Philippe Coutinho 61’
Lionel Messi leads Barcelona to the semifinals.
Barcelona gets to the semifinals for the first time since 2015 after a 3-0 win at the Camp Nou to take a 4-0 aggregate win against Manchester United.
Before Philippe Coutinho scored a spectacular goal to end the goal scoring in the match, Lionel Messi had decided the match for Barcelona in the first half with two goals in the opening 20 minutes. The goals made Messi the outright top scorer in the competition with 10 goals.
April 17, 2018
Manchester City 4-3 (4-4 agg) Tottenham
Manchester City – Raheem Sterling 4’ 21’ Bernardo Silva 11’ Sergio Aguero 59’
Tottenham – Heung-Min Son 7’ 10’ Fernando Llorente 73’
It was a thrilling match that kicked off with 5 goals in the opening 21 minutes.
Fernando Llorente’s headed in the decisive goal for Tottenham to eliminate Manchester City from the competition.
It is the first time since the 1961/62 season that Tottenham has gotten to the semifinals.
VAR played a major role in the outcome. Sergio Aguero was ruled off-side to disallow Manchester City’s (90+3’) injury-time goal that would have been enough to see the team through.
Porto 1-4 (1-6 agg) Liverpool
Porto – Eder Militao 69’
Liverpool – Sadio Mane 26’ Mohamed Salah 65’ Roberto Firmino 77’ Virgil van Dijk 84’
Liverpool set up a mouthwatering UEFA Champions League semi-final date with Barcelona as their vaunted strikeforce proved too good for Porto.
Since Liverpool had never lost a European match against Porto, not many would have been surprised by the outcome.
Liverpool will be returning to the semifinal for the second year in a row.
The Final Four
Ajax (Netherlands) Eredivisie
Barcelona (Spain) La Liga
Liverpool (England) Premier League
Tottenham (England) Premier League
First-Leg fixtures will be played on April 30 and May 1, 2018
Second-Leg fixtures will be played on May 7 and May 8, 2019
April 30, 2019
Tottenham vs Ajax
May 8, 2019
Ajax vs Tottenham
May 1, 2019
Barcelona vs Liverpool
May 7, 2019
Liverpool vs Barcelona
