Key events
GOAL! Atletico Madrid 4-1 Club Brugge (Sørloth 87); agg 7-4
A short-corner routine by Atleti is pinged back down the left flank. Matteo Ruggeri crosses, the ball dropping onto the foot of Alexander Sørloth, who slots with a confident sidefoot from close range past the rooted Simon Mignolet. That’s a hat-trick for Sørloth, and Atleti will play either Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur in the last 16.
GOAL! Atletico Madrid 3-1 Club Brugge (Sørloth 76); agg 6-4
… so having said that, Atletico establish a two-goal lead, and are surely in the hat for Friday’s last-16 draw. Marcos Llorente plays a long ball down the inside-right channel for Alexander Sørloth, who should release Ademola Lookman into the box down the left. His pass across is poor, behind Lookman, but Antoine Griezmann comes over, offering himself as a wall for Lookman to ping the ball off. A one-two down the left, then Lookman crosses low. Sørloth can’t miss from six yards and that is surely that!
Atletico Madrid 2-1 Club Brugge (agg 5-4). There’s not a whole lot going on at the Metropolitano. But then the hosts were similarly in control at this corresponding point during the first half, only to go on to ship an equaliser followed by a couple of big chances. So the Belgians won’t be giving up on this quite yet. A quarter of an hour of regulation time to go.
That Newcastle team, then. With the Toon five goals up after the first leg, Eddie Howe has been able to rest quite a sizeable chunk of his first team. He’s made seven changes from the XI sent out for the brave 2-1 defeat at Manchester City last weekend. The 21-year-old left-back Alex Murphy makes his first start for the club, while Harvey Barnes, Aaron Ramsdale, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy, William Osula and Sven Botman are all recalled. Anthony Gordon, who last week became just the second English player to score four times in a single Champions League match (after Harry Kane for Bayern Munich against GNK Dinamo in 2024), is on the bench.
Eddie Howe talks to Amazon Prime. “We’ve picked a really strong team … I really like all of the players playing … I want to win the game … it’s important we keep the rhythm of the players in the squad … I’m sure the younger players will get an opportunity … there are dangers … complacency … selfishness … we want to be professional … calmness … get the job done.”
The 8pm teamsheets
Bayer Leverkusen: Blaswich, Quansah, Andrich, Tapsoba, Lucas, Palacios, Garcia, Grimaldo, Hofmann, Maza, Schick.
Subs: Omlin, Lomb, Fernandez, Arthur, Oermann, Tape, Poku, Kofane, Culbreath.
Olympiacos: Tzolakis, Rodinei, Retsos, Pirola, Ortega, Mouzakitis, Hezze, Dani Garcia, Gelson Martins, Taremi, Chiquinho.
Subs: Paschalakis, Botis, Biancone, Kalogeropoulos, Nascimento, El Kaabi, Scipioni, Andre Luiz, Clayton, Costinha, Liatsikouras, Onyemaechi.
Internazionale: Sommer, Bisseck, Akanji, Bastoni, Luis Henrique, Frattesi, Barella, Zielinski, Dimarco, Esposito, Thuram.
Subs: Di Gennaro, Josep Martinez, Dumfries, de Vrij, Sucic, Bonny, Acerbi, Diouf, Mkhitaryan, Carlos Augusto, Darmian, Lavelli.
Bodø/Glimt: Haikin, Sjovold, Bjortuft, Gundersen, Bjorkan, Evjen, Berg, Fet, Blomberg, Hogh, Hauge.
Subs: Lund, Sjong, Nielsen, Aleesami, Auklend, Saltnes, Helmersen, Klynge, Riisnaes, Bassi, Maatta, Mikkelsen.
Newcastle United: Ramsdale, Trippier, Botman, Burn, Alex Murphy, Jacob Murphy, Tonali, Joelinton, Barnes, Woltemade, Osula.
Subs: Pope, Ruddy, Harris, Hall, Wissa, Gordon, Elanga, Willock, Shahar, Neave.
Qarabag: Kochalski, Matheus Silva, Badavi Huseynov, Medina, Daniel, Pedro Bicalho, Jankovic, Cafarquliyev, Montiel, Zoubir, Duran.
Subs: Cabrayilzada, Abbas Huseynov, Bayramov, Qurbanly, Ramazanov, Buntic, Addai, Andrade, Borges, Kashchuk.
GOAL! Atletico Madrid 2-1 Club Brugge (Cardoso 48); agg 5-4
For the fourth time in the tie, Atleti go into the lead! Johnny Cardoso meets a half-hearted header on the edge of the Brugge D. He takes a touch before whipping a low shot into the bottom left. It wasn’t tight in the corner, and so once again Simon Mignolet may have done better, but it was hit pretty sweetly nonetheless.
For the completist, here are the team-sheets from Madrid. There were no changes during the first half … and none at the break either. The second half is underway at the Metropolitano.
Atletico Madrid: Oblak, Llorente, Pubill, Hancko, Ruggeri, Simeone, Johnny, Koke, Baena, Sorloth, Alvarez.
Subs: Le Normand, Lookman, Vargas, Molina, Lenglet, Almada, Griezmann, Mendoza, Gimenez, Musso, Esquivel.
Club Brugge: Mignolet, Sabbe, Ordonez, Mechele, Seys, Stankovic, Forbs, Vetlesen, Vanaken, Tzolis, Tresoldi.
Subs: Campbell, Lemarechal, Diakhon, Spileers, Siquet, Nilsson, Osuji, Vermant, Meijer, Sandra, de Corte, Jackers.
HALF TIME: Atletico Madrid 1-1 Club Brugge (agg 4-4)
The tie at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid has reached its three-quarter mark. Or has it? We’ll have to reassess if this goes to extra time, which it may well do, because Atleti simply can’t shake off Brugge at all. Alexander Sorloth gave the hosts the lead on 23 minutes, Simon Mignolet failing to deal with a shot from the edge of the box that squeaked into the bottom left. But Joel Ordoñez headed home from a corner after 36 minutes, after which Hugo Vetlesen missed two big chances to put Brugge ahead in the tie for the very first time. Second half promises fun!
Preamble
This was going to be a standalone MBM of the second leg between Newcastle United and Qarabag. But, well, y’know.
Good evening and welcome, then, to the wonderful world of Clockwatch. We’ll still take in events at St James’ Park tonight, but there will be three other Champions League matches on the go, one having already started, so we may as well keep checking in on those as well. Especially as last year’s runners-up are in grave danger of being dumped out by Bodø/Glimt, a club Inter dispatched from the 1978-79 Cup Winners’ Cup second round 7-1 on aggregate. Times change. Anyway, here’s tonight’s card, and here we go. It’s on!
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Atletico Madrid v Club Brugge (agg 3-3; ko 5.45pm)
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Bayer Leverkusen v Olympiacos (agg 2-0; ko 8pm)
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Internazionale v Bodø/Glimt (agg 1-3; ko 8pm)
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Newcastle v Qarabag (agg 6-1; ko 8pm)