Real Madrid and Chelsea will meet again like last season in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, in which Manchester City and Bayern Munich will face each other in the toughest duel; Milan and Napoli will star in the Italian tie and Benfica and Inter Milan They will solve the other crossing.
If you pass this phase, Real Madrid will continue to defend the title against the winner of Manchester City-Bayern in the semifinals, in which, as in the quarterfinals and unlike last year, they will have to play the second leg away from the Santiago Bernabéudetermining factor in the achievement of the fourteenth in Paris.
The The semifinals will be played on May 9/10 and May 16/17 and if they reach the final on June 10 in Istanbul, the team led by the Italian Carlo Ancelotti would act as the localagainst the one that overcomes the semifinal between the winners of the Milan-Naples and Benfica-Inter clashes.
The hands of the Turkish Amit Altintop and the Dutch Patrick Kluivert, former white player the first and of clubs like Barcelona and Valencia the second, matched Real Madrid and Chelsea in the UEFA draw in Nyon againa cross that occurred last season and also the previous one, when the English became the last team to defeat Madrid and won their second title after defeating City.
He Last year Real Madrid removed that thorn and on one of the magical nights at the Bernabéu they came back from a match, in which they wasted the two-goal advantage they brought from London but they were able to qualify for the semifinals after extra time with a goal from Karimn Benzema.
Now and With the best version they show in the Champions League, Carlo Ancelotti’s men reach the quarterfinals after leaving Liverpool outin the reunion of both teams after the last final, with the resounding 2-5 at Anfield and the minimal 1-0 victory two days ago at home.
He Chelsea, champion in 2011-12 and 2020-21, grabs hold of the Champions League in a season in which it seemed discardedbut now qualified for the quarterfinals thanks to the 2-0 win over Dortmund in the round of 16 round played in London (2-1 on aggregate).
He Chelsea have overcome eight of their previous eleven quarter-final ties in this competition And his visit to the Bernabéu will be the first for the Portuguese Joao Félix as a player for Graham Potter’s team and a new reunion for the Croatian Mateo Kovacic with whom he was his audience for four seasons until 2019.
The The quarterfinals, which will be played on 11/12 and 18/19 April, will have a stellar duel between Manchester City and Bayern Munich, probably the two clubs that everyone else wanted to avoid and who are chasing a title that the English have never woncompared to the six times that the Germans have done it, the last in 2020.
The five goals that the Norwegian Erling Haaland endorsed Leipzig three days ago (7-0 and 8-1 on aggregate), to certify their pass to the quarterfinals, increased the respect imposed by Pep Guardiola’s team this season. A year after being one step away from playing in his second final, when he was eliminated by Real Madrid, he has accumulated five wins and three losses.
Haaland is the youngest player and the fastest to reach 30 goals in the Champions League and challenges Julian Nagelsmann’s eleven, who reached the quarterfinals after beating PSG (3-0 on aggregate)a year after saying goodbye in the quarterfinals against Villarreal.
Milan and Naples will play an Italian duel, which could be repeated in the semifinals if Inter beat Portuguese Benfica in the other tie. The Stefano Pioli’s Milanese return to the quarterfinals eleven years laterafter making the most of the 1-0 they achieved in their stadium against Tottenham in the first leg of the round of 16 and the 0-0 in London. Second in the group stage, in which they coincided with Chelsea, they now overcome the disappointment of a year ago, when the “rossoneri” were last in this.
He Naples, for its part, wants to extend its historic season. From the leadership of the Italian league, they will play the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the first time, after knocking out the German Eintracht (0-2 and 3-0), winner of the last Europa League, and finish first in the group stage, ahead of Liverpool, Ajax and Rangers. The parthenopean painting reaches this point as the great ‘covered’ for its spectacular performance.
The CThe quarters will be completed with the Benfica-Inter duel, the only one that altered the order of extraction of the balls so that Inter and Milan do not coincide at home. Since 2006 it is the first time that the two Milanese clubs have reached the quarterfinals.
The Simone Inzhagui’s Italians had not reached this stage since 2011 and they do so after beating Porto in a matched tie and resolved with the goal that Lukaku scored in the first leg at his stadium. So far they have kept a clean sheet in five of their last seven “Champions” duels.
Benfica led by the German Roger Schmidt got rid of Bruges in the round of 16, with a 7-1 (0-2 and 5-1) in the tieand after a brilliant group stage, in which they beat PSG, Juventus and Maccabi Haifa. is undefeatedwith six wins and two draws.