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After a string of surprises, eight teams have qualified for the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League.
While the likes of Liverpool, Juventus, Barcelona, Porto, Ajax, and Manchester United produced extraordinary turnarounds in the second leg, the reigning Champions Real Madrid were humbled by the Dutch outfit Ajax at Santiago Bernabeu in the last round. Atletico Madrid were blown away by the Old Lady after taking a 2-0 lead from the first leg.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Sadio Mane were irresistible in their play and helped their sides to slide into the next round of the competition. They dominated the headlines by standing up on the perfect occasion to bail their clubs out of threat by bagging goals on the big stage.
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On the other hand, plenty of sides were not able to muster results in the second leg of the tie and their clubs eventually faced elimination from this tournament. Many players were fizzled out by the opponents in the second part of the tie and will not want to recall those miserable moments.
Even though there are plenty of players who have failed to step up the gear, we shall look at the five among them from the last round of the Champions League.
#5 Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund)
Borussia Dortmund were hit with an injury crisis ahead of the first leg against Tottenham Hotspur in the last 16 of the competition. Captain Marco Reus along with Paco Alcacer were ruled out for the clash at Wembley, which forced Lucien Favre to slot Christian Pulisic in the left wing.
The USA International, who is joining Chelsea in the summer transfer window, failed to put in a good performance and missed many chances in the process. During the first half, he was one-v-one with Hugo Lloris, but he somehow found a way to pass the ball to the Spurs skipper instead of wrapping his foot around it.
Besides, the visitors were the best team during the first half, but they failed to take any advantage of it as they lacked conviction when it mattered the most.
Christian Pulisic was the main culprit for that, as the lack of away goals blew away the chances of a comeback at Signal Iduna Park. However, in the reverse leg, he found himself on the bench, and rightfully so.
#4 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Karim Benzema opened the scoring at Amsterdam Arena in this tie, but he was nowhere to be seen in the second leg. Apart from the chance which he took, his off the ball movement to make things happen and interlink with the wingers was very poor.
Daley Blind and Matthijs De Ligt were all over the Frenchman; they kept him up in wraps, marked every run of his and mopped up danger without major fuss.
He had a chance to set up Casemiro in the second leg following a fantastic run with nimble feet, but he took the shot himself from an acute angle which did not hit the target.
The 31-year-old is Real Madrid's top scorer with 21 goals this season and a lot was expected from him going into this fixture. Karim Benzema failed to step up when it mattered the most for his club.
#3 Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid)
Antoine Griezmann was one of the best players for Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the competition, but he failed to provide an inspirational performance at Allianz Arena. He was part of the sailing ship that was blown away by Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick in Turin.
The Frenchman did not score in either of the two legs, although he did a lot of hard work during the first leg at Wanda Metropolitano. He was the main man to make the transition happen between midfield and attack. However, he was not able to get hold of the ball to make that maneuver happen in the reverse fixture.
The entire Atletico Madrid side lost possession in cheap areas, which came back to bite them. During the first leg, Griezmann did well to limit Miralem Pjanic and shut him down.
In the second leg, he was isolated, dejected and hapless.
#2 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
After facing the elimination in the hands of Liverpool, Robert Lewandowski criticized his manager Niko Kovac's approach to set up defensively which did not bring him to the game. However, the Polish International had enough of the ball to make things happen in the final third, but he was not decisive.
The former Borussia Dortmund striker, who was top scoring in the Champions League this season, was anticipated to be more robust and quick in his game. Lewandowski tried to negate Joel Matip and attacked him during both the legs, but he ended up negating himself.
Trent Alexander-Arnold faced a tough challenge against Frank Ribery, but Joel Matip did brilliantly to stop both the winger and the striker.
When he had the chance to take shots from outside the box, Lewandowski failed to grab it and continued his struggle in the knockout stages of the competition.
#1 Luka Modric (Real Madrid)
The Ballon d'Or winner along with Toni Kroos and Casemiro was expected to win the midfield battle. But, the future Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong toyed the Los Blancos midfield with such ease in both the legs.
He gave away the ball during the first leg at Amsterdam Arena which resulted in a goal. There is no doubt that it was Dusan Tadic's brilliance which lead to the second goal in the clash against Santiago Bernabeu, but Luka Modric was once again the culprit as he was bullied by Frenkie De Jong in the middle of the park.
It has been a calamitous year for the Croatian International, whose legs are finally showing signs of slowing down. During the second leg, the young Dutch sensation De Jong made him look like a man with just his training boots on. Luka Modric is surely a flop in the Champions League Round of 16 this season.
