After the elimination of
Manchester City
, who had
Julián Álvarez
on the field during the 30 minutes of extra time against Real Madrid, and Atlético Madrid's goodbye to Rodrigo De Paul, Ángel Correa and Nahuel Molina, there
is now only one Argentine left with options to shout champion in the UEFA Champions League: Nicolás Paz.
The 19-year-old Merengue youth player, born in Tenerife but naturalized Argentine, came off the bench in the last three rounds of the group stage - a goal included in the 4-2 win over Napoli -, so he could be crowned champion if is that those led by
Carlo Ancelotti
manage to win their 15th 'Orejona'.
He is the Argentine hope in the competition.
NICO PEACE. 19 YEARS. INFERNAL GOAL FOR HIS FIRST SCREAM IN REAL MADRID AND IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE VS. NAPOLI!! pic.twitter.com/p54ZcDUzaO
— SportsCenter (@SC_ESPN) November 29, 2023
Álvarez, who came on for Erling Haaland at the end of regular time and converted the first penalty of the shootout at the Etihad Stadium, suffered saves from Andriy Lunin and will not be able to repeat the title obtained last year, while Cholo Simeone's
Aleti
will be They missed qualification against Borussia Dortmund in the last 20 minutes and were eliminated.
"We didn't know how to take care of the result. We were not very intelligent, it seems to me. We were very excited to be able to return to a semi-final with Atlético and we couldn't,"
De Paul lamented once the match at Signal Iduna Park was over.
The second step of football in the Old Continent is the
UEFA Europa League
and there
there will be albiceleste footballers in the four semi-finalist teams:
Olympique de Marseille, Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen and Roma.
The French team eliminated Benfica on penalties - with Ángel Di María and Nicolás Otamendi, by the way - and in the definition from twelve steps they had the successes of
Leonardo Balerdi
and
Joaquín Correa,
the two Argentines who make up the Marseille team. Their next rival will be
Juan Musso and José Luis Palomino
's Atalanta ,
who gave the big surprise by eliminating Alexis Mac Allister's Liverpool. The Argentines are here and there.
The other semi will be played by the German champion Leverkusen, with
Exequiel Palacios
as one of their references, against the Roma of
Paulo Dybala and Leandro Paredes.
The German team lost 1-0 against West Ham in England and also qualified 2-0 in the first leg, but the goal of the Dutchman Jeremie Frimpong at 44 minutes of the second half came to save an undefeated record that is now 44 matches. Meanwhile, those from the Italian capital left Milan behind with a goal from Dybala.
Dybala's jewel of a goal 🇦🇷 for Rome's 2-0 win over Milan in the 4th round of the Europa League.pic.twitter.com/BDFtnFn8XS
— VarskySports (@VarskySports) April 18, 2024
As for the
Conference League,
the score of the day was given by
Emiliano
Dibu
Martínez,
once again excelling on penalties: he saved two for Aston Villa to beat Lille in France. It was a hot match at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium, especially because of the French public's constant booing for the world champion goalkeeper and his response after his happy ending. In the next instance they will face Olympiakos from Greece, which has
Santiago Hezze
and
Francisco Ortega.
Meanwhile, the other semi will be the one between Fiorentina of
Lucas Beltrán, Nicolás González, Lucas Martínez Quarta and Gino Infantino
against Bruges of Belgium, the only team in this competition without Albiceleste representatives.