Manchester City of England and Inter of Italy have come a long way towards the semi-finals of the European Champions League competition, after the first beat its strong guest Bayern Munich 3-0 and the second beat its Portuguese host Benfica 2-0 on Tuesday in the first leg of the quarter-finals.

In Manchester, City and its Spanish coach, Josep Guardiola, knew how to deal with Bayern and its new coach, Thomas Tuchel, and the Premier League champion will play the second leg on Wednesday with great comfort against a team coming from eight victories in eight matches he played in the group stage and the final price, including against Inter and Paris Saint-Germain. .

City owes the big victory to the Spaniard Rodri (27), the Portuguese Bernardo Silva (70) and the Norwegian Erling Haaland (76), who scored the three goals.

And this confrontation pitted Guardiola against the team he supervised from 2013 to 2016, with whom he won the German League title three times and the Club World Cup.

Guardiola also stood up to Tuchel, who was denied continental glory in the 2021 final when he was at the head of the technical management of Chelsea (1-0).

The Spanish coach said, "It was a difficult match, and I liked the football quality of the Bayern players, and they showed courage and strength on the field, and during some periods they were better than us, but we were lucky and that beautiful goal by Rodri relieved us a lot, and we suffered after some minutes passed in the second half, and we rested after the second goal. The result is beautiful." It is acceptable and the performance was convincing, and we must be careful because there is a second leg."

The start came quickly, with a relative advantage in favor of City, but without any real chances, until the solution came in the 27th minute from Spaniard Rodri with a wonderful left arc shot from outside the area, with which I settled the ball in the upper right corner of the Swiss goalkeeper Jan Sommer.

City was close to adding the second through German Ilkay Gundogan, but Sommer excelled in defending his goal (34), before the field advantage passed at the end of the first half in favor of Bayern without effect.

Bayern started the second half strongly, and former City player Leroy Sanneh tested his luck from outside the area, but Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson was on the lookout for him (46), then the scene was repeated seconds later after a quick counterattack, and the Brazilian goalkeeper was on time again with the help of Dutchman Nathan Ake (49).

And Sanneh returned to collide again with the brilliance of Ederson (54), who also had to intervene to clear the ball from under the crossbar, after a cross was turned by one of his defenders (55).

City responded by trying to make Sommer shine in blocking it (57), then the Swiss intervened again in the face of a shot by Portuguese Robin Dias (58).

As the minutes progressed, Bayern tightened its grip on the course of the match and forced its host to retreat to the defense, coinciding with the entry of Sadio Mane instead of Jamal Musiala from the side of the guests and the Argentine Julien Alvares instead of the Belgian Kevin De Bruyne from the opposite side.

But this advantage was not fruitful, but the goal came from the opposite side after a fatal mistake by Upamecano in front of Jack Grealish, who snatched the ball and passed it to Haaland, who crossed it to reach Bernardo Silva to head it into the net (70).

Silva himself was close to adding the third, but Sommer was on time this time before he bowed after a few seconds in front of Halland, who received the ball with a header pass from John Stones, so he pounced on it and turned it into the Sommer net (76).

The 22-year-old raised his score to 34 goals in the 26 matches he played so far in the Champions League, including 11 this season in which his total number of goals reached 45, making him the first player from the Premier League to reach this number during one season, according to “Opta” statistics. .

Alvares was close to the fourth goal with a long shot, but Sommer blocked it this time (82), then he shone again in blocking Rodri's header (87).

In Lisbon, Inter cut more than half the way towards reaching the round of four for the first time in 13 years, thanks to the two goals scored by Nicolas Barella (51) and Belgian substitute Romelu Lukaku (82 from a penalty kick) against host Benfica, who brought back the memory of the 1965 final when the team was crowned. The Italian won its second title in a row, with a 1-0 victory.

With this victory, Inter became a strong candidate to reach the semi-finals for the first time since 2010, when it won the third title in its history after 1964 and 1965.

Benfica was the better party in the first half, but without much danger to Cameroonian goal Andre Onana, before the guests woke up in the second half and scored two expensive goals.

The first and most dangerous opportunity in the match was a powerful shot by Rafa Silva from close range, which was removed by goalkeeper Onana before the defense dispersed it (16).

Joao Mario hit a ball "on the fly" from inside the area, which passed near the right post (19).

Francesco Acerbi responded with a powerful shot from 25 meters high, a few centimeters high (25).

Inter surprised its host at the beginning of the second half by opening the scoring with a header from close range to Barella, following a cross pass by Alessandro Bastoni (51).

Greek goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodemos saved his goal from a second goal by blocking the Armenian international, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, from close range (66).

Spanish defender Alejandro Grimaldo almost equalized with a powerful shot from inside the area that hit Dutch defender Denzel Demphris and turned into a corner that did not bear fruit (73).

Barella tried his luck with a powerful shot from outside the area that passed near the right post (74), and a header by Dumfries from close range bounced off the goalkeeper and was dispersed by the defense (78).

Inter got a penalty kick after a handball on Joao Mario after a cross pass to Demphris (79), so substitute Lukaku crawled to the left of the goalkeeper (82).