Champions League draw: Arsenal face Bayern as Manchester City land Madrid
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Manchester City’s Champions League defence will continue with a tie against the 14-time winners Real Madrid and Arsenal will face Bayern Munich after the quarter-final draw on Friday. The Premier League clubs will face each other in the semi-finals if they progress.
There could be an all-Spanish semi-final too after Atlético Madrid were drawn to play against Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona landed Paris Saint-Germain.
City beat Madrid 5-1 in last season’s semi-finals after losing to them in dramatic fashion at the same stage in the previous campaign. City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain, believes the club can retain the trophy. “Yes, why not,” he said. “We are doing very well in this competition and winning the games. Mentally, we are strong and top in confidence. We are going to need it to beat Real Madrid.”
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Arsenal are in line to come up against the former Tottenham striker Harry Kane. The England captain has scored 34 goals for Thomas Tuchel’s team, including a record four hat-tricks in a debut Bundesliga season. Arsenal’s past two visits to Bayern have ended in 5-1 defeats, in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 campaigns.
“We certainly have the most difficult path ahead of us that you can imagine,” Tuchel said. “We now face one of the best teams in Europe. 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.” Bayern fans are not allowed at Arsenal because of Uefa ban after their supporters threw fireworks on to the pitch at Lazio this month.
The PSG manager, Luis Enrique, will face his former club Barcelona, whom he led to a Champions League triumph in 2015.
The quarter-final first legs will be played on 9-10 April and the second legs a week later. The semi-finals take place on 30 April and 1 May, with the returns the following week. Wembley will host the final on 1 June.