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Bayern draw PSG in Champions League quarters as Real face Liverpool
PARIS, March 19, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Holders Bayern Munich will face last
year’s beaten finalists Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals of this
season’s Champions League, while Friday’s draw for the last eight also threw
up a clash between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
The draw also pitted Premier League leaders Manchester City against
Borussia Dortmund, with Chelsea set to play Porto in the other tie.
Bayern defeated PSG 1-0 behind closed doors in Lisbon last August to win
their sixth European Cup and remain the team to beat in Europe, having won 18
and drawn one of their 19 games in the Champions League since the beginning
of last season.
The first leg is set to be played in Germany on April 6 or 7, with the
return in Paris a week later.
Meanwhile, the meeting of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Real is another re-
run of a recent final, with the Spaniards beating the Reds 3-1 in Kiev in
2018 to win the last of their record 13 titles to date.
Liverpool bounced back from that to lift the trophy for the sixth time in
Madrid in 2019.
Klopp’s side are due to be away from home in the first leg, but it remains
to be seen where that match will be played.
Atletico Madrid’s home leg against Chelsea in the last 16 ended up being
moved to the Romanian capital Bucharest due to restrictions imposed on travel
to Spain by British authorities.
The winner between Liverpool and Real will go onto a semi-final against
either Chelsea or Porto, throwing up the possibility of an all-English last-
four tie.
Liverpool beat Chelsea in the semi-finals in 2005 and again in 2007.
Unbeaten in 13 games since the appointment of Thomas Tuchel as coach in
late January, Chelsea will be expected to get the better of Portuguese
champions Porto, who ousted Juventus in the last 16.
However, that tie could also be relocated given travel restrictions
between the United Kingdom and Portgual which prompted both legs of last
month’s Europa League clash between Arsenal and Benfica to be played at
neutral venues, in Italy and Greece.
Meanwhile City will be strong favourites against Dortmund, with the winner
of that tie going through to a semi-final showdown with either Bayern or PSG.
Travel restrictions between the UK and Germany could also have an impact
on City’s tie against Erling Braut Haaland’s Dortmund.
Both legs of City’s last-16 tie against Borussia Moenchengladbach were
played in Budapest, as were both legs of Liverpool’s tie against RB Leipzig
in the last round.
This season’s semi-finals are due to be played in late April and early
May, with the final scheduled for May 29 in Istanbul.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1833HRS