Champions League knockout phase reactions

Upsets, crashouts, late goals, red cards—the knockout phase of the Champions League featured an unparalleled array of drama.

Despite the unprecedented feeling to this year’s new format, the entertainment has certainly lived up to expectation. After Wednesday’s matches, eight teams were eliminated, while the victorious eight punched their tickets to the round of 16.

With plenty of talking points to discuss, here are some reactions we had to this round of the tournament:

Carson: City What Happened? Mbappé did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Real Madrid absolutely outclassed Manchester City in the second leg after City botched their one goal lead in the final ten minutes of the first leg at the Etihad. The only redeeming quality from any of the $180 million worth of transfers was a late meaningless goal from Nico Gonzáles

Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne didn't even see the pitch in the second leg, and for now City are left to focus on qualifying for a champions league spot next year. Pep Guardiola will have to go back to the drawing board and rethink his team's strategy when facing top clubs.

Their defensive lapses were glaring, and Mbappe was free to run behind the high lines for four goals across the two match days.

Meanwhile Real Madrid looks like they should be the favorites now, with a next round matchup against rival Atlético de Madrid this should be one of the marquee matchups to watch in the round of 16.

Alex: AC Milan crumble again

For the second year in a row, Italian giant AC Milan exited the Champions League early. This time, they fell to Dutch side Feyenoord, whom they were favored to beat.

Despite being down to ten men for most of the second half on Tuesday, Milan managed just one goal against a defense that conceded 21 goals in league play—the most of any team to reach the knockout phase.

Their offensive inconsistency has plagued them all year long, across all competitions. While Santiago Gimenez has been a nice surprise, Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic have only mustered four goal contributions in Milan’s last five games.

Milan came into the Feyenoord game down 1-0 on aggregate and got off to a dream start thanks to Gimenez’s first minute goal. From there, it seemed likely that Milan would go on and turn the tie around.

Unfortunately for them, Theo Hernandez was sent off early in the second half, hindering their abilities to find a second goal. The left-back clumsily received a second yellow for diving inside the penalty box. The final score of Tuesday’s game would be 1-1, with Feyenoord winning 2-1 on aggregate.

Credit must be given to Feyenoord, as this victory is instantly a famous one. However, AC Milan will be wondering how they couldn’t get the job done in continental competition, once again.

Carson: Club Brugge: Biggest surprise of the knockout stage:

Club Brugge went to Bergamo and took the first leg in extra time, it was a penalty that the Bergamo faithful were very upset to see called. Ferrán Jutglà buried the penalty and with it, Brugge carried the momentum into their home match.

Despite being outshot 30 to 7 in the second leg, Brugge still managed to build a 3-0 lead in the first half, decimating Atalanta’s chances to get back into the game.

There was some controversy surrounding Ademola Lookman’s missed penalty, Atalanta manager Gian Pieri Gasperini blamed Lookman, while Lookman was very upset by his comments.

This might be the start of a rift that could see the Nigerian's departure and with Atalanta’s disappointing end to the champions league tournament, they could look to cash out a player worth nearly 50 million euros according to FotMob.

Alex: PSG is a dark horse

The summer departure of Kylian Mbappe left Paris Saint-Germain in what felt like could be a transitional type of season. However, they’ve remained as one of Europe’s most dangerous teams, displaying their talents in full against Stade Brestois (Brest).

The final score on aggregate was an impressive 10-0, as PSG dismantled their fellow Ligue 1 squad. Brest could not contain the speed and quality of Ousmane Dembele in the first leg, and pretty much everybody in leg two.

Dembele has always been regarded as one of the most talented footballers when healthy, but injuries have ravaged the Frenchman over the past few seasons. Now that he’s healthy, we’ve seen the very best of him in recent weeks.

Dembele has scored 15 goals in 2025 so far, the most out of any player from the top five leagues. His brace in the first leg had PSG leading comfortably before the second leg even began.

If Dembele can continue his recent form, PSG will be a real dark horse to go deep into this competition. They will have to face Liverpool next round, but an upset is certainly possible if PSG played like they did against Brest.

Alex Harkins is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email arh6278@psu.edu.

Carson Schuler is a fourth-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him please email cts5357@psu.edu.