beinsports.com
Chelsea’s newly appointed manager Thomas Tuchel’s unbeaten record stretched to eight games after the bicycle-kick goal of French club forward Olivier Giroud secured a 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in their first-leg match of round-of-16 in the Champions League on Tuesday,
The match was scarcely contested, and in the first half, no team succeeded in breaking the deadlock. In a tough match, when Giroud’s overhead kick found the net to break the deadlock, VAR came into play and Chelsea took 3 long minutes to take the much-needed lead.
As he pulled off his acrobatic shot, Giroud was obviously in front of the defenders and few Chelsea players protested when the linesman lifted his flag, but VAR determined that the ball came from Atlético defender Mario Hermoso rather than Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount, thus annulling the offside.
“I didn’t know what to think about the goal, I just concentrated on hitting the overhead kick and was happy to see it go in the back of the net, I had no clue about being offside,” said Giroud.
“He didn’t touch the ball, Mason Mount said. Good for the team, good for me.”
Until Musiala and Leroy Sané put the defending champion firmly in charge at the end of the first half, Robert Lewandowski gave Bayern the lead after a Lazio howler.
At the start of the second half, Francesco Acerbi netted his own goal as Lazio’s first appearance in the Champions League knockout stage for 20 years went from bad to worse.
In the Champions League, 17-year-old Jamal Musiala, who scored the second goal of the match, became the youngest ever Bayern Munich player to score. In the knockout stage of the tournament, Musiala also became the second-youngest player to score.
