Winners and losers: Spanish star fires Juventus, as Arsenal crumble

There continues to be something oddly mechanical about Juventus in Europe, but the Serie A champions did enough to secure a 2-1 win over a resurgent Borussia Dortmund in Turin. The result remains in the balance but Juve boss Max Allegri will surely have been buoyed by the performance of Álvaro Morata, who came of age on the European stage.

Ostensibly signed as back-up to Carlos Tévez and Fernando Llorente, Morata has been quietly impressive for the Bianconeri so far this term, plundering six league goals despite limited starts and beginning to prove – not least to those at Real Madrid who opted cut him loose in the summer – that he has the raw materials to become a real player.

Morata got the nod over Lllorente on Tuesday night and repaid Allegri handsomely, playing a part in both goals. The Spaniard’s cross-shot was parried into the path of Carlos Tévez for the opener and he then netted himself, turning home smartly from close range after good work by Paul Pogba. “It’s the best game I’ve played since I’ve been at Juventus,” Morata admitted after the final whistle.

This column has not always been especially forthcoming with praise for Monaco. The Ligue 1 side appeared to have made some Faustian pact in the group stage, somehow dragging themselves past the still-twitching bodies of Zenit and Benfica despite averaging less than a goal a game (only three sides scored fewer) and, well, not really being very good at attacking.

It was a pleasant surprise, then, to see Leonardo Jardim’s side produce the goods in the final third against Arsenal. True, all three goals owed plenty to their opponents’ straw-man defending (of which more presently) but there was a cutting edge to Monaco that had hitherto been absent.

No one encapsulated the new-found verve more than João Moutinho, who ran the show from central midfield. So often linked with Premier League sides to no avail, he looked eager to prove a point at the Emirates, scampering busily among the stunned rabbits of the home midfield and passing with no little poise; one sublime flick to Anthony Martial was especially memorable.

Having found their fluency, Monaco will now rely on old habits to seal the deal in the principality: they have conceded only two goals in seven Champions League games thus far, making their defence the meanest left in the competition.

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Ah, spring time. Leaves making their way tentatively back onto trees. Birds celebrating with a song. People in crooked former council flats finally being able to sleep without wearing scarves (or is that just me?). And – yes, it really is here – Arsenal collapsing at the first sight of a European knockout game.

Little remains to be said that has not been said before. Suffice it to note that this was peak Arsenal, a crystallisation of their weaknesses so pure as to be chemically blue. Poor finishing? Check. A lost midfield battle? Check. Question marks over the full-backs? Check. Suspicions that the goalkeeper might be some chancer who once walked out of Sports Direct with a £4 pair of gloves and somehow, 15 years later, finds that he’s playing in the Champions League? House!

One moment captured the hopelessness of it all: 53 minutes in, with the score 1-0, Monaco began a counter-attack and found just ONE Arsenal defender in their path. Forget about tactics for just a second and consider what this says about Arsenal’s psychology: that, at the first sign of trouble, they lost themselves so completely that they became exposed barely one quarter of the way through the two-legged tie.

A 1-0 deficit, while not ideal, would not have been insurmountable. But given the way Monaco defend, scoring three goals in the second leg will be difficult in the extreme. Knowing Arsenal, they’ll produce a courageous display but come up just short. Ah, spring time.

You know you’ve had a poor night at the office when a home defeat feels like a get-out-of-jail-free card. City, for 45 minutes at least, were blown away by Barcelona, unable to find any kind of rhythm and apparently incapable of getting the ball into Sergio Aguero’s postcode, let alone to his actual feet.

That there was a feeling of déjà vu about the whole thing will be of even greater concern to Manuel Pellegrini. The Chilean basically has two systems – two strikers/one striker and Jésus Navas doing 100m sprints down the wing – but seems to have developed the unhappy habit of always picking the wrong one when things heat up in Europe.

Lionel Messi handed them a lifeline but it would be a surprise if the lord did not taketh away again at the Camp Nou.

Diego Simeone’s side will still expect to qualify for the quarter-finals, but a 1-0 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen will not have been in the Argentine’s script. Worse still, Tiago and Diego Godín will serve suspensions in the second leg, while Guilherme Siqueira and Saúl Ñíguez picked up injuries.