Liverpool, Madrid, Barcelona looking to complete CL job

MILAN (AP):

Defending champions Real Madrid, Liverpool and Barcelona all have one-goal leads to protect going into the second leg of the Champions League (CL) round of 16 this week.

Real Madrid also have city bragging rights at stake as they visit Atletico Madrid tomorrow with a 2-1 advantage from the first leg.

Liverpool host Paris Saint-Germain today knowing they were fortunate to snatch a 1-0 win in France.

Barcelona also only have a 1-0 advantage over Benfica, while some other teams are feeling a lot more comfortable -- Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 and Arsenal crushed PSV Eindhoven 7-1.

Smash and grab

Liverpool's players don't really care how they're winning -- as long as they continue.

Arne Slot's team withstood a barrage of attacks at Parc des Princes before a late goal from Harvey Elliott stunned PSG.

That was only Liverpool's second attempt on target compared to a whopping 27 shots at goal for PSG.

The runaway Premier League leaders had another poor performance on Saturday but still managed to come away with a victory over Southampton.

"It's just about winning, not how we win. Sometimes you have to win dirty and today was one of them days," Elliott said after that match.

This week will be decisive for Liverpool's treble bid as they play Newcastle in the English League Cup final on Sunday.

The loss to Liverpool was PSG's first defeat since November and halted a run of 10 straight wins for the French team.

"Regardless of the result, which could have been different, our way of preparing for the match hasn't changed," PSG coach Luis Enrique said on Monday.

"What is true is that as things stand we are eliminated. So we only have one option, which is to go out to win, although that is what we would have done anyway."

Madrid derby

This was supposed to be the year Atletico finally got the better of Real Madrid in the Champions League after losing two finals to their city rivals and being eliminated the other two times they faced off in the knockout rounds.

Going into the first leg, Atletico were ahead of Madrid in the Spanish league and were also undefeated in the past four Madrid derbies.

But they are now on the verge of going out yet again to their neighbours.