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2024-03-15 13:08:02
NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Real Madrid and Manchester City will meet in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, in a confrontation between the last two champions and the only two that remain undefeated in the current competition.
Madrid will be home on April 9 or 10 and the rematch will be played the following week in Manchester.
Kylian Mbappé’s path to his first Champions League title in his farewell season with Paris Saint-Germain will pass through Barcelona.
PSG will be home in the first leg, in which coach Luis Enrique faces his former club, which he led to the title in 2015 when the Barcelona team had Lionel Messi and Neymar, who would again be teammates in the Parisian team during two seasons.
Arsenal will host Bayern Munich in the first leg, whose star Harry Kane will return to London after his transfer from Tottenham, the Gunners’ archrival. Bayern fans will not be able to attend that match as part of a UEFA sanction after they threw firecrackers onto the pitch in two previous matches.
In the remaining match Atlético Madrid and Dortmund will face each other.
UEFA made sure that Mbappé’s PSG could not face Real Madrid, the team to which the French star will move for next season, but in the final.
The four teams considered the strongest are on the same side of the draw. Next season, when the new format is launched, the two strongest teams in the first expanded phase of eight matches will be pre-qualified in the manner of tennis tournaments so that they cannot face each other before the final.
This time, the winner between Real Madrid and Man City — the only teams to win all six of their group stage games — will be the visitors in the first leg against either Arsenal or Bayern.
Atlético and Dortmund will be local in the first leg against PSG and Barcelona.
The draw offered a familiar and powerful panorama. It included five European champions – who between them have won 27 of the last 68 titles – and three losing finalists: Arsenal, Atlético and PSG.
The semi-finals will be played between April 30 and May 8, and the final on June 1 at London’s Wembley Stadium.
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