Sports
Champions League: Chelsea meet Real Madrid; Man City face Atletico in quarters
London, March 18 (IANS): Reigning European champions Chelsea will meet 13-time winners Real Madrid in a repeat of last season’s semi-final clash while Manchester City will take on Atletico Madrid in another last-eight match of the Champions League 2021-22.
The draw for the quarter-final stage of the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League was made on Friday with former champions Liverpool being picked to play Portugal’s Benfica while German giants Bayern Munich meet Spain’s Villarreal.
The draw opens up the possibility of either an all-English or all-Spanish semi-final, In the other half of the draw, Liverpool and Bayern are facing comparatively light-weight opponents and thus could run into each other in the penultimate round of Europe’s premier club football tournament.
The first-leg matches of the quarter-finals will be played on April 5-6, while the second legs are a week later on April 12-13.
The first leg of the semi-finals are scheduled for April 26-27, and the second for May 3-4. The final will be played at the Stade de France in Paris on May 28 after the venue was switched from Saint Petersburg following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Holders Chelsea will have home advantage in the first leg of the tie, which will see Real Madrid’s Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois and head coach Carlo Ancelotti return to Stamford Bridge, where they had spent quite a bit of time during their chequered career.
Chelsea and Manchester City could meet in the semi-finals if both overcome their opponents from Madrid, while Liverpool are likely to run into Bayern in the last four.
Atletico booked their quarter-final spot by beating Manchester United while City strolled past Sporting Lisbon 5-0 on aggregate.
The Blues overcame Real in last season’s semi-finals en route to winning the competition, while Atletico will face a swift return to Manchester having just eliminated Man United in the Round of 16.
Chelsea booked their last-eight spot by beating Lille, while Real staged a tremendous comeback to knock out Paris Saint-Germain.
Chelsea’s manager Thomas Tuchel has not lost any of his six Champions League matches against Real Madrid, winning two and drawing four of them. No coach has faced Real as often in the competition without losing at least once. Equally, Chelsea have never lost to Real in European competition.
Liverpool will be satisfied with a draw against two-time European Cup winners Benfica. Benfica are currently just third in the Portuguese league this season but they qualified for the last 16 at the expense of Barcelona and then ousted a much-fancied Ajax side.
Liverpool and Benfica last met in the 2009-10 UEFA Europa League, with the Reds prevailing 5-3 on aggregate. In addition, these two teams have met on eight previous occasions in European Cup or Champions League fixtures.
City, who overcame Sporting Lisbon 5-0 on aggregate, will fancy their chances of overcoming Diego Simeone’s men. It is the first meeting between City and Atletico.
KEY DATES
- April 5-6: Quarter-finals, first leg
- April 12-13: Quarters, second leg
- April 26-27: Semi-finals, first leg
- April 3-4: Semi-finals, second leg
- May 28: Final