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BREAKING: Champions League draw: Pep Guardiola reunites with Bayern as Chelsea face old foes
The Champions League draw has seen Pep Guardiola return to clash with former side Bayern Munich while Chelsea will face Real Madrid.
Meanwhile City and Chelsea have been made to know their potential opponents in the semi-finals if they both scale through the quarter-final stage.
National Daily can confirm that a victory for Chelsea and Manchester City against Real Madrid and Bayern Munich respectively will see the English giants face each other in the semi-finals.
The west Londoners progressed to the last eight of the competition courtesy of a come-from-behind 2-1 aggregate win over Borussia Dortmund while Premier League champions City also defeated German opposition, hammering RB Leipzig 8-1.
From the quarter-final stage onwards, the draw becomes ‘open’ with no seedings or country protection – meaning clubs from the same national association can now face each other – while the team drawn first plays the first leg at home.
Chelsea have been handed a particularly difficult draw against Real Madrid, who have won the tournament in four of the last seven seasons, while Pep Guardiola returns to Bavaria to take on old club Bayern Munich.
Meanwhile, two Serie A giants AC Milan and Napoli have been drawn against each other in the quarter-final draw with the other Serie A giant Inter Milan slated to face Benfica.
The above draw can easily see a Serie A side cruise into the finals as a winner between Milan and Napoli will face the winner between Inter and Benfica.
Italy have not had a finalist since Juventus in 2017 but with three teams in one half of the draw they have a great opportunity to make the showpiece in Istanbul in three months’ time.
City however are the bookies’ favourites to win the Champions League, closely followed by Bayern Munich – who edged out PSG in the last 16 and are involved in a serious title battle with Borussia Dortmund this year, while three others teams are just seven points adrift.
Reigning champions Real Madrid are also one of the main contenders after a 6-2 aggregate win over Liverpool, though they have been less impressive domestically and trail La Liga leaders Barcelona by nine points.
Free-scoring Napoli, meanwhile, have an 18-point lead at the top of Serie A and look well set to compete on both fronts, though Inter and AC Milan have endured more mixed campaigns – losing eight and six times respectively in Serie A and narrowly scraping past Porto and Tottenham.
Benfica could be a dark horse in the competition, having hammered Club Brugge 7-1 on aggregate in the last 16, while they have an eight-point lead domestically and have lost just once all season.
The first legs take place on Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 April, with the return legs scheduled for 18 and 19 April.
For Chelsea, that means they travel to Molineux to face Wolves before the first leg, then host Brighton, before another very challenging away trip to face Manchester United at Old Trafford following the second leg – but only if the Red Devils are not involved in the FA Cup.
City, meanwhile, will travel to Southampton before the first leg, then host Leicester City, while the return leg is proceeded by a trip to Brighton – again, though, this is dependent on both clubs’ FA Cup participation.
The first legs of the Champions League semi-final will take place on Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 11 May, with the return legs scheduled for 16 and 17 May.
The final will take place on Saturday 10 June at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey. The venue was originally due to stage the 2020 final but it was postponed and relocated twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.