NYON: Manchester City will face Liverpool in a mouthwatering all-English Champions League quarter-final while Juventus have a chance to gain revenge on holders Real Madrid in a repeat of last year’s final.
Surprise qualifiers Sevilla take on five-time European champions Bayern Munich while Lionel Messi’s Barcelona were paired with AS Roma in the draw made in Nyon on Friday.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side will host Pep Guardiola’s City at Anfield for the first leg, either on April 3 or April 4, as the sides play each other for the first time in Europe.
It will also be the first meeting of two English clubs in the last eight of the Champions League since Manchester United overcame Chelsea at that stage in the 2010-2011 season on their way to the final.
City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain said: “We know each other very well, they are a very offensive team, the truth is it is going to be a great couple of games.”
Cristiano Ronaldo and his Real teammates will be happy to be playing the second leg of their tie at their Santiago Bernabeu stadium against Juventus, whose experience proved lethal to English club Tottenham in the last 16.
Real Madrid director Emilio Butragueno said it would be a “very special match“
“Juventus played against Tottenham, which had extraordinary results and was superior, and yet, despite the difficulties, came through. They have a competitor’s mentality.”
Real thrashed Juventus 4-1 in last year’s final in Cardiff.
Former Roma captain Francesco Totti meanwhile said his club were excited about the prospect of taking on Barcelona and Messi, who scored his 100th Champions League goal in the comfortable 3-0 defeat of Chelsea on Wednesday.
“Meeting Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the Champions League — that’s a match that will be hard to forget,” Totti told BeIN Sport.
Roma’s sporting director Monchi joked: “You can’t say we were very lucky with this draw.”
German giants Bayern face Sevilla, the surprise slayers of Manchester United in the last round, but goalkeeper Sven Ulreich said they were relieved to avoid one of their major rivals.
“There are harder draws. It’s doable, but Sevilla have shone in Europe and they have won three Europa Leagues,” Ulreich said.
“So we’ll be very focused when we go over there (for the first leg) and then we’ll do the business at home.”
Sevilla’s sporting director Oscar Arias said: “This is very difficult. We are facing one of the historic clubs of European football, a great club in this competition. But we are up for it.”
— AFP
Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp to go head to head in Man City-Liverpool Champions League tie
Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp to go head to head in Man City-Liverpool Champions League tie
Barcelona pounces on Real Madrid stumble and regains lead of La Liga with a 3-0 win over Levante
- Barcelona moved one point ahead of Madrid, which had won eight in a row in the league before losing to Osasuna
MADRID: Barcelona took advantage of Real Madrid’s stumble and regained the Spanish league lead with a comfortable 3-0 win over relegation-threatened Levante on Sunday.
Marc Bernal, Frenkie de Jong and Fermín López scored a goal each as Barcelona ended a two-game losing streak to get back in front of rival Madrid, which lost 2-1 at Osasuna on Saturday.
Barcelona moved one point ahead of Madrid, which had won eight in a row in the league before losing to Osasuna.
Barcelona was coming off a 2-1 loss to Girona in the league and a 4-0 loss to Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals.
“It was important to win and earn three points again,” Barcelona defender João Cancelo said. “Soccer gives you these opportunities to rebound and that’s what we did today, playing well again after two bad games.”
Barcelona had earned a clean sheet only once in its previous six games in all competitions.
Good start for Barcelona
Bernal scored from close range four minutes into the match at the Camp Nou Stadium. The 18-year-old Bernal had scored his first goal with the first team two rounds ago in a win over Mallorca.
“They had an early chance but my goal helped us settle and gain some confidence,” Bernal said.
De Jong added to the lead from inside the area in the 32nd and López sealed the victory with a beautiful long-range shot in the 81st, with the ball ricocheting off the post before going into the net.
Levante’s Australian goalkeeper Mathew Ryan kept Barcelona from adding the fourth with a pair of outstanding saves in a row in the final minutes, first off a header by Raphinha and then off a point-blank strike from López on the rebound.
It was the fourth straight defeat for Levante, which sits in 19th place. It is one point ahead of last-place Oviedo, which has a game in hand.
Levante has only one victory in its last eight matches.
Pedri entered the match in the 66th to make his return to action after an injury layoff.
Other results
Sevilla won 1-0 at 10-man Getafe for its second win in its last 10 matches in all competitions.
Djibril Sow scored a 64th-minute winner for the visitors. Getafe played a man down from the 26th after a straight red card for Djene Dakonam.
The result left Sevilla in 11th place, immediately above Getafe.
Third-place Villarreal, Barcelona’s next league opponent, can restore a three-point gap to fourth-place Atletico Madrid if it beats Valencia at home later Sunday. Atletico beat Espanyol 4-2 at home on Saturday.
