European Round-Up: Semi Finals – First Leg

This week’s action in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League are now over, and we now know the clubs who have taken a step closer to the Final in each of these highly prestigious competitions following first leg wins.

The 2024/25 season is coming to a close, and as a result, we have reached the latter stages of all three European Competitions, with the first leg of the Semi Final ties in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and in the UEFA Conference League having all taken place this week across the continent of Europe.

These games took place from Tuesday 29th to Thursday 1st May 2025, with a number of clubs taking a step closer to the Final of their respective European Competitions with crucial first leg victories. Teams from the English Premier League make up four of the clubs who currently remain in a European Competition, and they are of course Arsenal, Manchester United, Spurs, and Chelsea.

Starting with the Champions League, Arsenal are the final Premier League club that remains in European Club Football’s Premier Cup Competition, and they are facing French Champions PSG in the final four. The Gunners were on the end of a narrow 1 – 0 defeat in the first leg at the Emirates, and Mikel Arteta’s side will believe that they will be able to turn the tie around in Paris and reach the final.

Moving on to the Europa League, Manchester United and Spurs both came away with important wins in their quest to win this season’s competition. Spurs faced Norwegian outfit Bodø/Glimt, who they were able to comfortably beat 3 – 1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, whilst Ruben Amorim’s Red Devils were emphatic 3 – 0 winners away from home against Spanish side Athletic Club on Thursday night.

Finally, in the UEFA Conference League, Chelsea showed why they are amongst the favourites to win this season’s competition in the first leg of their Semi-Final tie against Djurgårdens, beating them 4 – 1, with the Blues looking very likely to win this tie following the Second Leg at Stamford Bridge and reach the final.

Here, we are going to review the action from all of the matches across the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, as well as the UEFA Conference League. We will start with the Champions League.

Arsenal (England) 0 – 1 Paris Saint Germain (France) – Emirates Stadium – UEFA Champions League

We will begin with Arsenal’s game against French Heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain, which took place at the Emirates Stadium in the heart of North London on Tuesday night. Mikel Arteta’s Gunners were hoping to get the better of their Parisian counterparts so that they could not only have an advantage ahead of the second leg but also take a step closer to the Final later this month.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, they were unable to get the better of Luis Enrique’s PSG team, losing 1 – 0 thanks to an early goal from French international forward Ousmane Dembélé, who found the back of the net within the first five minutes of this enthralling contest (4’).

Arsenal were very threatening going forward, having 10 attempts on goal to PSG’s 11, and they forced the visiting Italian Goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, into several great saves throughout the ninety minutes of this contest.

The second leg of this tie will be taking place at the iconic Parc des Princes in the heart of the City of Paris on Wednesday 7th May 2025, with the game kicking off at 8pm that evening.

FC Barcelona (Spain) 3 – 3 Inter Milan (Italy) – Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys – UEFA Champions League

Next up is the other first leg game of the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League Semi-Finals between two European Heavyweights, with Hansi Flick’s FC Barcelona going head to head with an Inter Milan side led by their Italian Head Coach Simone Inzaghi. The Blaugrana and Inter faced each other at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Spain on the evening of Wednesday 30th April.

It was an incredible game, with it being a rollercoaster for fans of both sides on the night. Marcus Thuram spectacularly opened the scoring in the opening minute of the game (1’) before they doubled their advantage through their Dutch right back Denzel Dumfries (21’).

This is before 17 year old Spanish sensation Lamine Yamal (24’) scored another goal of real quality to pull a goal back and halve the deficit at 2 – 1. Ferran Torres then scored to restore parity just a few moments later (38’), not long before half time. Dumfries then gave Inter the lead again in the second half (63’), only for a Yann Sommer own goal to restore parity once again in this game at 3 – 3 with just over twenty minutes of the game remaining (65’).

The second leg of this tie will be taking place at the iconic and historic San Siro in the heart of the City of Milan in Italy on Tuesday 6th May 2025, with the game kicking off at 8pm that evening.

Spurs (England) 3 – 1 Bodø/Glimt (Norway) – Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – UEFA Europa League

We are now moving on to the UEFA Europa League matches that took place on the evening of Thursday 1st May 2025. Firstly we will reflect on the game between Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs and a Bodø/Glimt side led by their Head Coach Kjetil Knutsen at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The first leg saw Tottenham come away as very comfortable 3 – 1 winners to take a very strong advantage into the second leg away from home in Norway next week.

It most certainly did not take very long for Postecoglou’s Tottenham team to take the lead within the very first minute of this crucial contest thanks to a great goal from Welsh forward Brennan Johnson (1’). It was 2 – 0 with just over half an hour had gone in this game, with midfield maestro James Maddison scoring to strengthen his side’s grip on the game as well as on the tie itself (34’). It was three nil at the halfway stage of the second half thanks to a successful penalty from the spot for forward Dominic Solanke with just under half an hour of the game remaining (61’).

Bodø/Glimt did go on to then pull a goal back to reduce the deficit from three to two goals when their Norwegian central midfielder Ulrik Saltnes found the back of the net to give his side some more hope for the second leg in Norway.

Spurs will be coming face to face with this team once again in the second leg at the Aspmyra Stadium in less than a week’s time on Thursday 8th May in what is going to be an 8pm kick-off (UK Time).

Athletic Club (Spain) 0 – 3 Manchester United (England) – Estadio de San Mamés – UEFA Europa League

We will now be moving on to the second and only other 2024/25 UEFA Europa League Semi-Final that took place this week, which saw a Ruben Amorim-led Manchester United side take a trip to Bilbao in Spain to face Athletic Club in the first leg of their tie in the last four of this season’s competition.

In the end, it was a tremendous night and performance for United, with the Red Devils coming away with a tremendous, well deserved, and dominant 3 – 0 victory away from home in the first leg.

It was veteran midfielder Casemiro who finally opened the scoring for Manchester United, with the ex-Real Madrid player looking to help his current club come away with this game with a win ahead of the second leg (30’). Athletic Club was then down to ten men when the Bilbao side lost one of their central defenders Vivian, who was sent off after being shown a red card by the referee just moments after Casemiro had scored to give the English visitors the lead (35’).

Bruno Fernandes then extended United’s lead to 2 – 0 to make his side’s lead more comfortable after successfully scoring from the spot (37’). The Portuguese midfield maestro then gave the Red Devils a three goal advantage with his second goal of the game to make it 3 – 0 to Ruben Amorim’s team before half time (45’).

There were no more goals in the second half, with Manchester United coming away with a convincing and commanding lead going into the second leg at Old Trafford, with the Theatre Of Dreams hosting this game on the evening of Thursday 8th May 2025, with the kick-off taking place at 8pm.

Real Betis (Spain) 2 – 1 Fiorentina (Italy) – Estadio Benito Villamarín – UEFA Conference League

The first 2024/25 UEFA Conference League Semi Final First Leg contest that we are taking a look back on here is the one that was contested between Real Betis of Spain’s La Liga and Fiorentina of Italy’s Serie A at the Estadio Benito Villamarín, the home of Betis.

The two clubs are managed by Head Coaches Manuel Pellegrini and Raffaele Palladino respectively, faced each other in a game that was of course crucial for both sides, and Betis and Fiorentina will see themselves as amongst the favourites to win this season’s competition alongside Chelsea. It was a 2 – 1 victory in the end for the hosts on the night – Real Betis.

It was Los Verdiblancos (The Green and Whites) who took the lead early on thanks to a great goal from Real Betis’ Moroccan midfielder Abdessamad Ezzalzouli (6’) in what was the only goal of the first half, before Manchester United loanee Antony gave Betis a two goal advantage when the Brazil international scored his goal with just over half an hour of this game remaining (64’). La Viola did manage to pull a goal back through their 26 year old central defender Luca Ranieri (73’), but it stayed at 2 – 1 ahead of the second leg.

The second leg will be taking place at Fiorentina’s Stadio Artemio Franchi in Italy on the evening of Thursday 8th May in what is going to be an 8pm kick-off in Florence.

Djurgårdens (Sweden) 1 – 4 Chelsea (England) – 3Arena – UEFA Conference League

Finally, we move on to the second and final game that was played this week in the 2024/25 UEFA Conference League Semi Finals. This first leg tie was contested between Swedish outfit Djurgårdens and Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea, who are widely seen as the leading candidates to win this season’s competition. This game took place on the night of Thursday 1st May 2025, with the game having got underway at 8pm UK Time.

In the end, it was a ruthless and dominant display for the Blues of West London, with them beating their Swedish counterparts by the emphatic scoreline of 4 – 1 away from home.

The goals for the Premier League visitors started when Manchester United loanee Jadon Sancho gave Chelsea the lead in the early stages of the second half (13’) before his fellow English forward Noni Madueke doubled their advantage just ahead of the half time break (43’).

Then it was a brace from Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson that took the game away from hosts Djurgårdens, with the scoreline now at 4 – 1 to Chelsea following Jackson’s two outstanding and crucial goals (59’, 65’). The home side did manage to get a goal back through their 18 year old attacking midfielder Isak Alemayehu Mulugeta (68’), but this just turned out to be a consolation goal in the end.

The full time whistle went, with Chelsea now having a commanding 4 – 1 advantage over their Swedish counterparts Djurgårdens going into the second and final leg that is going to be taking place at Stamford Bridge in the heart of West London in what is going to be an 8pm kick-off on the night of Thursday 8th May 2025.

Excitement is already building ahead of the action in the second and final leg of the Semi Final ties in the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, and the UEFA Conference League, which will all be played from Tuesday 6th May to Thursday 8th May 2025.

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