In the Champions League era, only the Zinedine Zidane-coached Real Madrid (2016, 2017 and 2018) have retained European football’s biggest prize. If Manchester City are to become the third English team to win club football’s biggest prize back-to-back – after Liverpool (1977, 1978) and Nottingham Forest (1979, 1980) – they’ll have to do it the hard way, by overcoming a Real side revitalised by last summer’s signing of Jude Bellingham.
City will take heart from their 4-0 evisceration of Real at the Etihad Stadium in the second leg of the semi-final last May. But unlike their opponents, who enjoy a seven-point buffer atop La Liga, City are also part of the closest English title race in years, currently a point adrift of Arsenal and Liverpool.
The winner of that titanic clash will be away in the first leg of the semi-final, to either Arsenal or Bayern Munich. Arsenal lost 5-1 to the German champions, home and away, when they last met seven years ago, but Mikel Arteta has created a side that increasingly fear no one. The acquisition of Declan Rice has given them a steel latter-day Arsene Wenger sides lacked, and they face a Bayern side poised to lose their stranglehold on the Bundesliga title.
The other side of the draw sees Atletico Madrid, thrice beaten finalists, taking on Borussia Dortmund, champions in 1997. The winners of that tie take on the team that will prevail in another mouthwatering clash. Time will tell whether Paris Saint-Germain against Barcelona is billed as the Neymar-Messi derby, but both have much to prove this season.
PSG will lose Kylian Mbappe to Real in the summer, and despite over a billion Euros being invested in the squad, they have yet to win the big prize. As for Barcelona, they have reached this stage for the first time in four years. If Xavi Hernandez, who relinquishes the coaching role in June, can somehow upset the odds and win Barcelona the trophy for a sixth time, it will be a damning indictment of a club hierarachy that lost faith in his methods.
The quarterfinal first legs will be played on April 9 and 10, with the return games a week later. The semifinal first legs will be on April 30 and May 1, with the returns on May 7 and 8. Wembley, where Barcelona won the trophy in 1992 and 2011, will host the final on June 1.