{"id":28491,"date":"2026-03-12T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28491"},"modified":"2026-03-12T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T08:00:09","slug":"real-madrid-paris-saint-germain-dominate-first-leg-of-european-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/real-madrid-paris-saint-germain-dominate-first-leg-of-european-champions-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid, Paris Saint\u00a0Germain\u00a0dominate first leg of European Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">On Wednesday night&#8217;s European Champions League action saw two sleeping giants awoken in crucial round of sixteen ties.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain stamped their authority on their respective first leg matches.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Arsenal was held to a draw, while Norwegian club Bodo, Glimt continued with their remarkable winning run.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Arsenal were undone by their own game when Bayer Leverkusen scored from a corner against the North London club in Germany.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The Gunners rescued a one all draw in the Rhineland through Leverkusen old boy Kai Havertz from the penalty spot.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The second leg moves to the Emirates Stadium in London, with both sides fancying their chances.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Defending champions, Paris Saint Germain showed their pedigree at the Parc des Princes with a 5-2 first leg win over Chelsea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Paris Saint-Germain coach, Luis Enrique said his side showed the type of grit and determination they will need in the second leg at Stamford Bridge next week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Frederico Valverde registered the first hat-trick of his career as Real Madrid beat Manchester City 3 nil at the Bernabeu to take control of their last 16 tie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Madrid coach, Alvaro Arbeloa praised his side for playing to their potential.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><span style=\"background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21509,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-28491","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"European Champions League saw two sleeping giants awoken","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28496,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28491\/revisions\/28496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}