A week of few surprises in Europe – Real Madrid win without playing well, Mo Salah is sensational and Arsenal shoot themselves in the foot against Atletico 

Winners

Marco Asensio

The perfect super sub: when he comes off the bench he always gets his name on the scoresheet. A fundamental finish in Munich to gift a truly important away win to Madrid, who now have a foot in their third consecutive final and are one step closer to being crowned Champions League winners yet again. He is still to get the starting eleven status, but is decisive like few others in Europe.

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Mohamed Salah

It’s now 43 goals this season and the best is yet to come. After such a performance, it seems impossible not to see the Reds in Kiev, and Salah will have the chance of lifting the Champions League trophy in his first season at Liverpool. Something remarkable. He is already on fire as it is, and the brace against Roma proved it, but the sky is the limit for the Egyptian now.

Diego Simeone

Sent off for protesting and for visibly offending the referee, his celebration in the stands was a gift to spectacularity and proof yet again that he truly lives and breathes this sport. Atletico did an Atletico and got the best out of a very tough situation, down to ten men, without their coach and suffering against one of the best Arsenal performances of the season. The result is a 1-1 draw with a vital away goal and the chance to host the Gunners at home in a position of advantage.

Losers

Eusebio Di Francesco

Absolutely perfect against Barcelona, completely the opposite against Liverpool. Di Francesco got everything wrong at Anfield, from the approach to the game to the tactics, with the three men backline that was heavily exposed to the Reds’ pace and went 5-0 down, before the two late goals gave some home to Roma.

It’s a pity, considering it is Roma’s first European semifinal since 1984, meaning this was a once in a lifetime chance. Another 3-0 miracle at the Stadio Olimpico is too much to ask. But never say never.

Bayern Munich

Dominant, but unable to create danger. And exposed at the back. Essentially, not very German and not very Bayern. Real Madrid are great at doing what they want. At accelerating when they need to and slowing down when they feel the time has come. But Bayern should have used their experience and quality to avoid losing at home, making it now almost impossible to turn things round.

Arsenal

The Gunners doing an Arsenal. Again. Arsene Wenger’s final home European game as Arsenal boss ended in the worst possible way, after dominating for 80 minutes, 11 against 10 men, playing great football going forward, wasting a crazy amount of chances and then everything getting ruined by Laurent Koscielny’s and Shkodran Mustafi’s mistakes. Astonishingly Arsenal, astonishingly consistent. The fluidity up front paired with the ridicule in defence. And now the chance to end Wenger’s time at Arsenal with the Europa League trophy is really slim.

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