Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid win big in Champions League, Liverpool loses, Barcelona held

Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid took giant strides toward the Champions League quarterfinals with big wins Tuesday. Liverpool and Barcelona still have work to do.

Bayern thrashed Atalanta 6-1 without top scorer Harry Kane in the starting lineup. And Atletico made under-pressure Tottenham coach Igor Tudor pay for his bold call to drop first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario by racing to a 3-0 lead inside 15 minutes. The Spanish giant eventually won 5-2.

Liverpool needs to overturn a 1-0 defeat to Galatasaray in next week's second leg at Anfield and Barcelona needed Lamine Yamal's penalty with the last kick of the game to rescue a 1-1 draw at Newcastle.

Even without the prolific Kane, Bayern all but sealed its place in the last eight with a dominant win at Atalanta.

England captain Kane has scored 47 goals this season for club and country but was only fit enough to make the bench and in his absence Michael Olise scored twice. Serge Gnabry and Nicolas Jackson each scored and set up goals. Josip Stanisic and Jamal Musiala were also on target for the German champion.

Tottenham endured a nightmare start in Madrid, with backup keeper Antonin Kinsky substituted in the 17th minute after his mistakes led to two of Atletico’s three early goals.

Spurs coach Tudor had opted to leave out first choice Vicario — a decision that backfired spectacularly. Kinsky was making his Champions League debut and his slip and miskick in the sixth gave Marcos Llorente the chance to open the scoring.

Antoine Griezmann made it 2-0 for Atletico before Kinsky miskicked again and Julian Alvarez slotted into an empty net.

Kinsky looked inconsolable when he was replaced by Vicario, who conceded just five minutes after coming on — Robin Le Normand scoring Atletico’s fourth.

“We knew how to take advantage of our opponents’ mistakes to gain a good lead, and now we go into the second leg with a three-goal advantage,” Alvarez said.

Spurs rallied, but it will take an unlikely comeback in the second leg to avoid elimination.

"We gave away three goals at the start, and then it became very difficult for us,” Tudor said.

According stats provider Opta, this was the first time in Tottenham's history that it has lost six games in a row.

Five-time European champion Barcelona was seconds away from defeat when Malick Thiaw brought down Dani Olmo in the box.

Referee Marco Guida pointed to the spot and 18-year-old Yamal had the composure to beat Aaron Ramsdale with the home fans baying for him to miss. His goal was timed at 96 minutes and the fulltime whistle was blown immediately after his spot kick.

“It wasn’t a great game from us, but we have a young team,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said. "We have to improve, but we have a lot of potential. We have to make things better, and we will.”

Newcastle led through Harvey Barnes’ close-range effort in the 86th. The forward had also hit the post with a curling effort earlier.

“It’s tough. You score and it’s an amazing feeling — you can feel the fans. We’d played really well,” Barnes said. "To concede late on is really hard to take, but the score is level and we have a second leg to come.”

First it was Juventus, and now Liverpool. Galatasaray is cutting a swath through European soccer's giants.

A 1-0 first-leg win in Istanbul gave the Turkish champion the advantage in this round-of-16 tie.

Mario Lemina's seventh-minute header secured the win for Galatasaray, which stunned Juventus with a 7-5 aggregate victory in the playoffs.

The second leg is next Wednesday.

"We want to win there too, we want to reach the quarter-finals,” Lemina said.

It is the second time Galatasaray has beaten Liverpool this season, having won by the same scoreline in the league phase.

It had chances to take an even bigger lead to Merseyside, with Victor Osimhen's second-half strike ruled out for offside. Liverpool saw Ibrahima Konate's effort disallowed by VAR for handball.

“What I do know is now it’s halftime," Liverpool coach Arne Slot said. “We’ve lost here twice with 1-0 and the good thing is the next game is not played here. It is played at Anfield and our fans can create a similar atmosphere.”

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Tottenham's goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, left, shakes hands with Tottenham's goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario after substitution during the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Tottenham in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)

Bayern's Michael Olise celebrates after scoring his side's fifth goal during the Champions League round of 16 soccer match between Atalanta and FC Bayern Munich in Bergamo, Italy, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Newcastle's goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale saves at the feet of Barcelona's Lamine Yamal during the Champions League round of 16 first leg soccer match between Newcastle United and Barcelona in Newcastle , England, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Atletico Madrid's Robin Le Normand celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 soccer match between Atletico Madrid and Tottenham in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Breton)

Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk, left, gestures after missing a chance during a Champions League round of 16 first leg soccer match between Galatasaray and Liverpool, in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Galatasaray's Victor Osimhen, left, shoots the ball next to Liverpool's Florian Wirtz during a Champions League round of 16 first leg soccer match between Galatasaray and Liverpool, in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Galatasaray's players celebrate after teammate Mario Lemina scored the opening goal during a Champions League round of 16 first leg soccer match between Galatasaray and Liverpool, in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Galatasaray's Victor Osimhen celebrates after teammate Mario Lemina scored the opening goal during a Champions League round of 16 first leg soccer match between Galatasaray and Liverpool, in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Galatasaray's Mario Lemina, left, celebrates after scoring the opening goal during a Champions League round of 16 first leg soccer match between Galatasaray and Liverpool, in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Newcastle United's Anthony Gordon, center, celebrates after scoring his sides first goal during their English Premier League soccer match against Manchester United in Newcastle, England, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

Barcelona manager Hansi Flick smiles during a press conference at St. James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Monday March 9, 2026, ahead of the Champions League soccer match between Newcastle United and Barcelona on Tuesday. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

Barcelona's Lamine Yamal celebrates scoring his side's 2nd goal during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between Barcelona and Villareal in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

WASHINGTON (AP) — When acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed off on a nearly $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate President Donald Trump's allies for alleged political prosecution, he may have pleased his boss.

But the eyebrow-raising move — the latest in his push to prove his loyalty to Trump — has agitated the same Republican lawmakers if he is nominated for the permanent job.

Blanche insists he’s not auditioning for the job of attorney general. But a succession of splashy steps the Justice Department has taken under his watch since he took the position on an acting basis last month, including an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, has left no doubt about the impression he’s hoping to make on the president who appointed him.

The fund in particular has put Blanche at the center of a Republican firestorm at a time when he aims to establish himself as the perfect person for the job for the remainder of Trump’s term. And it sharpened concerns from Democrats and other Blanche critics that he has not shed his mantle as the president’s personal attorney.

“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick,” Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former majority leader, said in a statement.

A former federal prosecutor in New York, Blanche came to public prominence for his lead role on Trump's defense team, including during the Republican's hush money trial in New York. That perch afforded him, he has said, a firsthand look at what he contends was the weaponization of the criminal justice system against Trump.

He was brought into the Justice Department as deputy attorney general, the No. 2 job, then was elevated last month after Trump ousted Pam Bondi.

Now he finds himself the latest Trump-appointed attorney general to simultaneously confront expectations from subordinates to uphold institutional norms and demands from the president to do his bidding.

Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was forced out after the 2018 midterms after infuriating the president over his recusal from an investigation into ties between Russia and the 2016 presidential campaign. Another, William Barr, resigned after their relationship fizzled over Barr's refusal to back Trump's baseless claims of massive election fraud. Bondi was removed after struggling to bring successful prosecutions against Trump's political opponents.

Two weeks after becoming acting attorney general, Blanche announced the appointment of Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to a special position inside the department. He'll oversee a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump.

“At some point, at the right time, that will be made public and the American people will see exactly what happened to this administration and President Trump over the past decade," Blanche told Fox News.

Prior government reviews of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation, a centerpiece of the current conspiracy investigation, have failed to produce criminal charges against senior officials or evidence of criminal conduct by them. It's not clear what, if any, new information the continuing investigation has developed.

The Justice Department also last month obtained an indictment charging Comey, a Trump foe whose prosecution the president has long called for, with threatening Trump through a social media photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47" — a case legal experts say will be challenging for prosecutors. Comey has said he wouldn't be surprised if the Justice Department pursues additional indictments.

In other moves, Blanche announced an indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that has been the target of conservative outrage, with misleading donors about its activities, and has publicly defended a Justice Department crackdown on leaks to the news media, including subpoenas to reporters.

Arguably the most audacious demonstration of loyalty to Trump came this week when the Justice Department announced the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who feel they've been unjustly investigated and prosecuted, coupled with a guarantee of immunity from tax audits for Trump and his eldest sons.

As Republican concerns grew, Blanche held a tense meeting with GOP lawmakers Thursday. Shortly afterward, Senate Republicans abruptly left Washington without voting on a roughly $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies.

Blanche, who defended the fund at a congressional hearing this week, has said anyone who believes they've been persecuted can apply for compensation regardless of political affiliation. But the fund has been widely understood as a boon to Trump allies investigated during the Biden administration.

“It’s pretty clear that he’s not the attorney general for the United States as much as he's the attorney general for President Trump,” said Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor and senior Justice Department official in the 1980s. He said Blanche would get an A+ if report cards were issued for fealty to Trump.

David Laufman, a former chief of staff to the deputy attorney general in President George W. Bush's administration, said that rather than protecting the Justice Department's independence, Blanche has been a “willing and ardent accomplice for carrying out any partisan or corrupt scheme the White House may devise.”

Blanche’s supporters dismiss the suggestion he is trying to curry favor with Trump to secure the permanent job.

“What he is doing is he is seeking justice based on facts and the law,” said Jay Town, who served as a U.S. attorney in Alabama during the first Trump administration. “And I don’t think that will ever change about him, whether he is the attorney general going forward or doesn’t spend another day in the administration. He is an honorable man and anybody that knows him knows that to be true.”

Blanche also says he is not angling to keep his job or feeling pressure to placate Trump.

He has told reporters he would be honored to be nominated but, "if he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’ I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”

In recent days, he's functioned as the fund's public face and most visible defender, a role consistent with his comfort in the spotlight. He sometimes holds multiple press conferences a week and grants interviews to a variety of news outlets, a contrast to Bondi, who largely stuck to Fox News appearances.

His defenders say his experience as a federal prosecutor has made him a more sophisticated communicator for the department than Bondi, but his statements have at times invited backlash, including his refusal to rule out that violent Jan. 6 rioters could be eligible for payouts.

Though Blanche will appoint the five commissioners tasked with processing claims, his precise role in the fund’s implementation is unclear. He told CNN it was developed through negotiations with Trump’s private lawyers, not him.

For some Democrats, that's a difference without a distinction.

“Mr. Attorney General, you are acting today like the president's personal attorney," Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, told Blanche during a combative exchange in the Senate hearing, "and that's the whole problem."

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche arrives for a closed-door meeting with Republican senators who are expected to abandon a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump's ballroom after it has failed to win enough party support, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche arrives for a closed-door meeting with Republican senators who are expected to abandon a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump's ballroom after it has failed to win enough party support, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)