Champions League Draws: City draw Atletico, Chelsea up against Real Madrid

 

Manchester City will play Atletico Madrid while reigning champions Chelsea will negotiate Real Madrid for a berth in the semifinals. (Photo credit: UEFA)

Mouthwatering fixtures await us in the last eight of the UEFA Champions League this season following the Friday draws for the road to the Parc de Princes final.

Reigning champions Chelsea have been drawn against record holder, Real Madrid in the repeat of last season’s quarter final affair which the Blues won with a brilliant 2-0 second leg win. The champions will be at home first and considering their current travails, this fixture is one to look forward to.

Chelsea can’t sell tickets for this game and would wish to play behind closed doors as they requested for the FA Cup against Middlesbrough before withdrawing the request. Los Blancos will look forward to this as an opportunity to avenge last season’s defeat.

Last season’s finalists, Manchester City have been handed Atletico Madrid. Diego Simeone’s side already enjoyed bliss in Manchester, they dumped Manchester United out of the tournament on Tuesday and will hope to maintain same energy against their city rivals.

If there’s any trophy everyone on the blue half of Manchester desperately craves, it is the champions league which they lost by fine margins last season. In their way this season is the gritty Los Che, how will this pan out?

Liverpool will sweat on the fitness of Trent Alexander Arnold as news broke out earlier on Friday that he has done his hamstring and would be unavailable for “weeks”. But Benfica shouldn’t pose too much problems for the Kops as they try to launch a quadruple bid with an assault on the remaining three fronts.

Last on the list is a fixture between Bayern Munich and Villarreal. The Yellow Submarines subdued Juventus in Turin to book their place in the last eight, they will have to negotiate Bayern Munich who destroyed Salzburg on their way to the last 8.