Soccer
Champions League Wednesday wrap-up: Real Madrid and Bodø/Glimt rampant, Arsenal draw and PSG avenge Club World Cup
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Four more first-leg matches were played on Wednesday as the Champions League's round of 16 continued.
Among the more noteworthy talking points were Arsenal's perfect streak coming to an end amid blowouts elsewhere in Europe.
Here are some of the bigger talking points from Wednesday's Champions League action.
Arsenal perfect no more
The Gunners looked to extend their winning streak in the 2025-26 Champions League to nine games, after winning all of their league phase matches to claim the top seed.
However, Bayer Leverkusen, ranked 16th, had other ideas. With steadfast defending and a clinical set-piece — sound familiar? — the German side put a mighty scare into the Premier League leaders, scoring first and forcing Arsenal to come back from a deficit for the first time in the tournament this season.
To their credit, Arsenal did just that. Led by an energized performance from Noni Madueke off the bench, the Gunners pushed for much of the second half in seach of an equaliser. Madueke eventually drew a late penalty, coolly converted by Leverkusen alumnus Kai Havertz, to put the teams on level terms ahead of the second leg in London.
Arsenal will fancy their chances at home next week, but they know that the margins are exceedingly slim at this stage of the competition. There's no room for error from here on out.
Man City already eliminated?
Not technically of course, but it may not be possible to have a worse first half than the Sky Blues experienced at the Bernabeu on Wednesday.
Faced with yet another battle with Real Madrid, Man City looked as though they were running in quicksand during the opening 45 minutes. Benefitting from the Premier League team's lethargy was Federico Valverde, who scored a hat-trick during a 22-minute spell of brilliance from the longtime Real Madrid man.
That's all the scoring Real needed to put Man City away, claiming a 3-0 victory at home, but Vinicius Jr. could have added to the Sky Blues' misery had he not missed a second-half penalty.
The three-goal deficit puts Man City in a massive hole leading into the second leg, and even with next week's match taking place within the friendly confines of the Etihad Stadium it's "Mission: Impossible" against the most successful club in Champions League history.
Can Pep Guardiola get his players to do their best Tom Cruise impression?
Bodø/Glimt still slaying giants
What is there left to say about Bodø/Glimt, the team from north of the Arctic Circle?
After collecting victories against Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan (twice), the prospect of facing Sporting CP in the last-16 couldn't have been as daunting, and the Norwegian side showed their mettle on Wednesday with a dominant 3-0 win over the Portuguese club.
It was another case of "less is more" for Glimt, who once again found themselves on the wrong end of the possession statistics and created fewer scoring opportunities than their opposition as a result. It didn't matter though, as Glimt proved the far more clinical of the two sides and now travel to Lisbon for the second leg with one foot already in the quarters.
PSG upend Chelsea
Things looked to be going quite well for Chelsea on Wednesday, as they battled back from two separate deficits to hit the hour mark of their first leg in Paris tied at 2-2 with the Ligue 1 giants.
That's where it all went south for the London club, with Paris Saint-Germain scoring three times inside the final 16 minutes to give the French side a 5-2 win as they avenged their FIFA Club World Cup loss to the Premier League side.
At least partially at fault for that late outburst was Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen, who got the late call to start the game over Robert Sanchez. It was a gamble on Liam Rosenior's part due to Jörgensen's lack of Champions League experience, and while it didn't backfire as egregiously as Tottenham's decision to start Antonín Kinský against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, there were enough similarities that Rosenior's faith in the young Dane has already been questioned.
With a big hill to climb next week at Stamford Bridge, much will be made about Rosenior's lineup choices. He'll have to get them absolutely spot-on for his side to even have a chance against the reigning champions in the second leg.
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