PARIS: The Champions League resumes this week with the first-leg matches in the quarterfinals, which are dominated by English and Spanish teams and include a couple of surprises among many of the usual heavyweights.
There are three English sides including defending champions Chelsea and a similar number of teams from Spain led by Madrid rivals Real and Atletico. German giants Bayern Munich are also in the last eight with Portugal’s Benfica, who face Liverpool.
While the match between Atletico and Manchester City promises a clash of contrasting styles, it is the Chelsea-Real tie on Wednesday which takes top billing.
Attempting to retain the title in the backdrop of an off-field crisis, Chelsea welcome Real for the first leg at Stamford Bridge. It is a repeat of last season’s semi-final which Chelsea won 3-1 on aggregate.
Chelsea are for sale after their billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich, was sanctioned by the British government for his close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine.
Chelsea’s future is up in the air the preferred new owner should be known sometime this month and the players have been doing their best to keep their focus on the field, with back-to-back wins over Lille in the last 16 achieved with the minimum of fuss.
Indeed, Chelsea has lost only once amid all the unrelenting takeover talk to Brentford on Saturday. Real will provide a much tougher challenge than Lille, though.
It’s still not certain whether Carlo Ancelotti will be able to travel with his side after testing positive for Covid-19 last week, but he will have Ferland Mendy and Karim Benzema available after they returned from injury against Celta Vigo at the weekend.
Real produced an incredible fightback to knock Paris Saint Germain out of the last round after the French side had dominated for 135 minutes and led 2-0 on aggregate and that spirit is something Chelsea will have to beware of.
Atletico are first in action on Tuesday as they travel to play City with the counterattacking, defensively obstinate mode preferred by Diego Simeone’s side clashing with the free-flowing, possession-based approach of Pep Guardiola’s Premier League leaders.
Atletico return to Manchester after knocking Manchester United out of the previous round, although City are currently in much better form than their local rivals, but Simeone’s men will be confident after progressing into the quarter-finals and with a 4-1 win at home to Alaves on Saturday extending their domestic winning run to six games.
Joao Felix has been vital in that run and the feeling is that the Portuguese forward is finally producing the form that tempted the club to pay over 120 million euros for him almost three years ago.
Ruben Dias is still out for City, but John Stones should be available to partner Aymeric Laporte in defence.
Their manager Guardiola, a two-time winner of the competition as a manager with Barcelona, has not won the trophy in 11 years and his teams have often fallen in the knockout stages due to unexpected tactical tweaks and team selection which have caused his system to fail.
Guardiola admitted on Monday that he overthinks and comes up with “stupid tactics” but would not have it any other way.
“In the Champions League always I overthink. New tactics, tomorrow you will see a new one,” said the former Bayern Munich coach. “I overthink a lot, that’s why I have very good results in the Champions League. It would be boring if I always played the same way.”
To many, Liverpool landed the plum draw in the last eight, with Benfica the big outsiders having reached this stage for the first time in six years.
It strengthened the belief that maybe a quadruple of major trophies really is possible for the English team, who have already won the English League Cup, is into the FA Cup semi-finals and trail City by just one point in the English Premier League.
Benfica face a gargantuan task but after already knocking out Barcelona and Ajax, there is belief they can spring another surprise against Liverpool in the first leg in Lisbon on Tuesday.
And Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said on Monday that his players must show maturity as they chase four titles this season.
“We all know one failure, one little misstep, and at least one competition can be gone,” Klopp told reporters before his side left for Portugal.
The third Spanish side in the last eight, Villarreal, have a tough draw and Unai Emery’s side play their first leg at home to Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
The side from the east-coast of Spain were magnificent in knocking Juventus out of the last round, but have an even tougher task ahead of them.
Well on their way to a 10th consecutive Bundesliga title, Bayern hope to crown the season with their seventh European title and their second in three years.
The Bavarian powerhouses are already eyeing the semi-finals as it would be a major surprise if Villarreal, currently seventh in Spain, were to stop the German side’s progress.
