NYON: Holders Manchester City and record 14-time winners Real Madrid are squaring off in the Champions League for the third year in a row.

The winners of the last two Champions League titles will meet in the quarter-finals this time after Friday’s draw set up another heavyweight clash between the only two teams who are still unbeaten in this season’s competition.

They played each other in the semi-finals the previous two years, with Real emerging victorious in 2022 while Pep Guardiola’s City beat the Spanish giants last year and went on to capture their first European Cup trophy.

In their latest meeting, Real will host the first leg on April 9 or 10 and City stage the return one week after.

“We don’t have another option. It looks like a little bit of a tradition... playing the kings of the competition, winning 14 Champions Leagues,” Guardiola told reporters. “Hopefully we can arrive in a good moment. There’s still three weeks before the first game in Madrid, we’ll see.”

Kylian Mbappe’s path to a first Champions League title with Paris St Germain in his farewell season there will next go through Barcelona.

PSG host the first leg as coach Luis Enrique faces his former club, which he led to the 2015 title with a Barca team that included Lionel Messi and Neymar — who were later reunited in Paris for two seasons.

“It is going to be a great tie. PSG have a very young side and a coach who we know very well, but we also have a great team and they will help us to go through,” Rafael Yuste, the Barcelona vice-president, told Movistar+.

Arsenal were drawn to play the first leg at home against Bayern Munich, whose star striker Harry Kane will go back to north London after leaving the Gunners’ arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur this offseason.

Atletico Madrid were paired with Borussia Dortmund in the other game, with the German club having the advantage of hosting the second leg.

Atletico under coach Diego Simeone showed again they are a fearsome force at the Metropolitano Stadium by ousting Inter Milan on Wednesday.

“We’re looking forward to a trip to Madrid,” said Dortmund coach Edin Terzic at a press conference on Friday. “Our clear goal is to take on a tough opponent who are a bit of a monster in knockout games and to defeat them ahead of the home game where we want to experience a magical evening in Dortmund.”

The Real-City games will be the top attraction even despite their many recent meetings.

“We need to remember that we beat them last season in the semi-final and we played at home in the second leg,” City director of football Txiki Begiristain said, recalling a 4-0 win last May after a 1-1 draw in Madrid.

The Spanish giants won a semi-final clash between the teams in 2016, while City emerged victorious in the last 16 in 2020.

“They are the champions and we know each other perfectly, so I don’t need to explain the virtues of City,” Emilio Butragueno, the former Real player who is now the club’s director of institutional relations, told Spanish broadcaster Movistar+. “Two tremendous games await us.”

ALL-ENGLISH SEMI-FINAL?

UEFA also made the draw for the semi-finals, which ensured Mbappe and PSG cannot meet Real— the team he is expected to join in the summer — until the final.

That draw arguably put the four strongest teams in the same half. The winner between Real and City — who were the only teams to win all six games in the group stage — will be away in the first leg against Arsenal or Bayern.

Arsenal returned to the quarter-finals for the first time in 14 years and they play Bayern which will give the German club’s star striker Harry Kane — who has scored 36 goals this season — another crack at his former north London rivals.

Kane has played Arsenal 19 times in all competitions and scored 14 goals. The former Tottenham striker is the joint-top scorer in the Champions League this season alongside Antoine Griezmann, Erling Haaland and Mbappe with six goals.

Six-times champions Bayern have been Arsenal’s biggest nemesis in the competition, with the German side triumphing in all four knockout ties between the two sides.

The last time they met, Bayern beat Arsenal 10-2 on aggregate in the last 16 in 2017. Bayern have won each of the last three meetings 5-1.

However, Bayern will not have their fans in the away end due to a UEFA ban after their supporters threw fireworks onto the pitch during their 3-1 win at Lazio earlier this month.

“We certainly have the most difficult path ahead of us that you can imagine. We now face one of the best teams in Europe,” Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel said. “They’ve been playing consistently at the top level for two years. They’re a homogenous, dangerous team, they score a huge number of goals. We’ll be ready, though. We know our qualities.”

A potential Arsenal- City meeting in the semi-finals would make it three games between them in less than six weeks. They play in the Premier League in Manchester on March 31 in a game that could have a major impact on a tight Premier League title race also involving Liverpool.

“We have been winning all games so we hope that we can keep this rhythm. Mentally we are strong,” Begiristain said.

Arsenal reached the quarterfinals by beating Porto on penalties and lead the Premier League on goal difference ahead of Liverpool.

“We are not scared of anyone,” Arsenal sporting director Edu said. “We are in a good momentum as a team.”

PSG’s meeting with Barcelona will be the latest instalment in the rivalry between those sides, as the French club aim to win the Champions League for the first time in their final season before Mbappe departs when his contract expires in June.

Five-time champions Barcelona knocked PSG out in the quarter-finals in 2013 and 2015, before their spectacular victory in the last 16 in 2017, when they recovered from losing 4-0 away in the first leg with a 6-1 win in the return at the Camp Nou.

PSG avenged that defeat in the last 16 in 2021, when Mbappe scored a hat-trick in the away leg to help his side triumph 5-2 on aggregate.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2024