Vinicius Jr nets double as Real Madrid dispatch Man City in Champions League

Real Madrid's Vinicius Jr scored twice as the Spanish side eased into the Champions League quarter‑finals on Tuesday, beating 10-man Manchester City 2-1 in an entertaining match at the Etihad Stadium to complete a 5-1 aggregate victory.

It is the third successive season in which Real Madrid have eliminated City from the Champions League.

Vinicius put the visitors ahead from the penalty spot in the 22nd minute after the VAR judged Bernardo Silva to have handled his shot on the line, a decision that also reduced City to 10 men and made an already daunting task seemingly impossible.

Vinicius, who had just clattered a shot off the post before Silva's handball, rubbed salt in the wound with a crying gesture to City's fans.

Pep Guardiola's men were not waving the white flag however and Erling Haaland levelled in the 41st minute with his first goal since February 11 when he tapped in a pass from Jeremy Doku from close range, but with the tie already tilted heavily by Madrid's dominant first leg, City's hopes of a comeback never truly gathered momentum.

City's Doku and Rayan Ait-Nouri and Real Madrid's Federico Valverde and Vinicius had second-half goals chalked off before Vinicius completed his brace with the last kick of the game from the edge of the six-yard box in the 93rd minute.

The Brazilian darted between two City defenders to meet Aurelien Tchouameni's pass with a volley that Gianluigi Donnarumma had little chance of stopping.

City fans had screamed for a penalty in the first half after what appeared to be a handball by Fran Garcia in the box.

The Spaniards, 15-times winners of Europe's elite club competition, had stunned 2023 champions Manchester City 3-0 in last week's first leg in Madrid when Valverde struck a hat-trick.

Now Alvaro Arbeloa's men march into the quarter-finals and Guardiola turns his attention to Sunday's League Cup final against Arsenal, who were also in action on Tuesday night.

Eberechi Eze opened his Champions League account with a stunning goal as his team outclassed Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 at home to reach the quarter-finals with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Leverkusen somehow weathered a barrage of Arsenal pressure in the opening half an hour with keeper Janis Blaswich outstanding until Eze's thunderbolt from outside the area in the 37th minute put them in control of an awkward last-16 tie.

The tireless Declan Rice made it 2-0 just past the hour mark with a precise low finish and Leverkusen, who ended Arsenal's 100 per cent record in this season's competition when they had the better of a 1-1 draw in last week's first leg, never really threatened a comeback.

Elsewhere, defending champions Paris St Germain humbled Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge, laying down the gauntlet for European challengers with a crushing 8-2 aggregate victory.

The French side, playing with Gallic brio, took six minutes to open their account when first-leg substitute hero Khvicha Kvaratskhelia added a third goal to his tally in the tie, pouncing on an all too familiar Chelsea defensive blunder, this time by Mamadou Sarr.

Chelsea were caught on the counter-attack in the 15th minute with a fine finish from Bradley Barcola and 19-year-old PSG substitute Senny Mayulu added a third in the 62nd minute.

Sporting staged a stunning comeback to beat Bodo/Glimt 5-0 after extra time on Tuesday and reach the quarter-finals with a 5-3 aggregate victory.

Trailing 3-0 from the first leg in Norway, Sporting attacked from the kickoff and went ahead in the 34th minute when Goncalo Inacio headed in from Francisco Trincao's corner.

Bodo/Glimt struck the crossbar before halftime, but Sporting scored again when Pedro Goncalves swept in Luis Suarez's cross in the 61st minute and levelled the tie when Suarez converted a spot kick in the 78th after a VAR handball review.

Sporting needed less than two minutes of extra time to score the fourth as Maxi Araujo slotted in, with substitute Rafael Nel adding a fifth in added time, ending the Norwegian side's fairytale run and sending the back-to-back Portuguese champions through.