One of the most exciting phases of the football season is all set to unfurl as the UEFA Champions League will resume with some breathtaking meetings on the card. It will be a revisit to some rivals while some teams are looking to enter the semi-finals for the first time in their history or many years.
One of the best UCL draws in a long time https://t.co/IlBLXolR2j
— 🏴 (@LJGLA_) March 17, 2023
The premier Elite European club competition has always offered mind blowing moments and this season it will be no different. Defending champions Real Madrid are all set to face Chelsea in the quarter-finals and it will be a replay of last year’s Quarter-final where the Los Blancos excelled and won their record 14th UCL title.
Last year’s QFs was only the 2nd time these two teams met with the first meeting coming in the year before that in 2020/21 Semi-finals where Chelsea had squeezed through 3-1 on aggregate to win their 2nd European title by beating Manchester City in the final.
The 2nd headline fixture is the one between Manchester City and Bayern Munich. Both of clubs don’t have much of an history but the German giants do have a connection with the Premier League champions. Pep Guardiola before taking over at City, won Bundesliga with Bayern Munich 3-times in a row.
It will be for the first time that City and Bayern are facing each other in the knock out stages as all of their previous 6 meetings were in the Group stages. Their first meeting came way back in City’s PL triumphant 2011/12 season and for the first time since 2014/15, the 2 clubs meet again.
João Cancelo will face Manchester City in UCL quarter finals after leaving the club on loan to join FC Bayern 🔴🇵🇹 #UCL pic.twitter.com/V4eyDJMCXl
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 17, 2023
Bayern also have 2 big names in their team who were once under Guardiola at City. Leroy Sane had a successful stint with Manchester City winning several domestic trophies before he joined the Bundesliga outfit. Very recently City full-back Joao Cancel reportedly had a fall out with City boss Pep and quickly moved to the Bavarians on loan for the rest of the season.
Thus it will be interesting to see how this fixture will go but it promises to be a belter.
Elsewhere, first-timers Napoli will have to beat the 2nd most successful side in the competition AC Milan to reach a historic Semi-finale against either of Benfica and Inter Milan. This season was for the first time since 2006 that 3 Italian clubs had qualified for the Last 8 stages.
7-time champions AC Milan after failing to remain in contention for Serie A title defense will definitely look to knock Serie A league leaders Napoli from the UCL. Elsewhere, the 3rd Italian team in the competition will face Portugal’s representatives SL Benfica.
