NYON: Defending champions Real Madrid will face Bayern Munich in the semifinals of the Champions League while Liverpool play AS Roma in a repeat of the 1984 final.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real will travel to Bayern’s Allianz Arena for the first leg on April 25 as the Spanish giants go in search of a third successive European crown.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side will host Roma at Anfield on April 24 in their first match.
The Liverpool-Roma tie pits Mohamed Salah, who has scored 39 goals in all competitions already this season, against his former club. “Looking forward to seeing you again,” Roma tweeted about the Egyptian striker.
Real, who have won the competition 12 times, reached the semifinals by fighting off a remarkable Juventus comeback as Ronaldo scored a late penalty to earn a 4-3 win on aggregate.
Roma produced one of the most remarkable comebacks in Champions League history to knock out Lionel Messi’s Barcelona with a 3-0 victory in the Italian capital that gave them an unexpected win on away goals over the two legs.
Bundesliga champions Bayern, who named their former player Niko Kovac as their next coach minutes before the draw, eased past Sevilla in their quarter-final.
Bayern’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic said despite losing to Real in the 2017 quarter-finals, they held no fear for the Bavarians.
“They are formidable opponents. We were knocked out by them last year and we want to do better this year,” Salihamidzic said.
“I’m optimistic. We have great respect for them but we’re not afraid.”
Real director Emilio Butragueno said Zinedine Zidane’s team were confident they can win a third consecutive European crown.
“It is truly historic to win two finals in a row and so obviously the prospect of reaching another final is an enormous source of motivation,” he said.
“We’ll see what we are capable of, but we’re confident.”
Liverpool beat runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City 5-1 on aggregate to set up their meeting with Roma. The English side have happy memories of the 1984 final, played in Rome’s Olympic Stadium. They won 4-2 on penalties after the match finished 1-1 in extra-time.
Klopp said: “I tried to think about what I feel, but it was not that I thought ‘Thank God not Bayern, thank God not Real Madrid, yippee Roma’ or the other way around.
“It is just the draw and I know it is very exciting, but it is good because the most important news is we are still in the competition.
“But if anybody thinks this is the easiest draw then I cannot help this person — they obviously didn’t see both games against Barcelona.”
Roma’s sporting director Monchi said: “This seems the perfect opportunity to achieve the happiness that we couldn’t get all those years ago.
“But we’ll have to take care of our game and do what we did against Barcelona.”
The second legs will be played in Madrid on May 1 and in Rome the following day.
Kiev will host the final on May 26.
Mohamed Salah to face former club Roma in Champions League semifinal
Mohamed Salah to face former club Roma in Champions League semifinal
- Salah scored 14 league goals for Roma before summer move to Anfield
- Real Madrid to meet Bayern in other semifinal
Morocco banish any doubts about ability to host World Cup 2030
- Impressive stadiums, easy transportation links and a well-established tourism infrastructure ensured the 24-team tournament went off without any major hitch and will assuage any doubters about the World Cup in four years’ time
RABAT: Morocco’s successful staging of the Africa Cup of Nations means there should be no skepticism about its ability to co-host the World Cup with Portugal and Spain in 2030, even if Sunday’s final was clouded by a walk-off and defeat for the home team.
Impressive stadiums, easy transportation links and a well-established tourism infrastructure ensured the
24-team tournament went off without any major hitch and will assuage any doubters about the World Cup in four years’ time.
Morocco plans to use six venues in 2030 and five of them were used for the Cup of Nations, providing world-class playing surfaces and a spectacular backdrop.
The Grande Stade in Tangier with a 75,000 capacity is an impressive facility in the northern coastal city, less than an hour’s ferry ride from Spain.
Meanwhile, FIFA President Gianni Infantino condemned "some Senegal players" for the "unacceptable scenes" which overshadowed their victory in the final when they left the pitch in protest at a penalty awarded to Morocco.
African football's showpiece event was marred by most of the Senegal team walking off when, deep into injury time of normal play and with the match locked at 0-0, Morocco were awarded a spot-kick following a VAR check by referee Jean-Jacques Ndala for a challenge on Brahim Diaz.
security personnel at the other end of the stadium, Senegal's players eventually returned to the pitch to see Diaz shoot a soft penalty into the arms of their goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
The match was played at the Stade Moulay Abdellah in the capital Rabat, which has a capacity of 69,500. The attendance for the final was 66,526.
Stadiums in Agadir, Fes and Marrakech were also more than adequate and will now be renovated over the next few years.
But the crowning glory is the proposed 115,000-capacity Stade Hassan II on the outskirts of Casablanca which Morocco hope will be chosen to host the final over Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
In all, Morocco will spend $1.4 billion on the six stadiums. Also planned is extensive investment in airports, with some 10 Moroccan cities already running direct air links to Europe and many budget airlines offering flights to the country.
An extension of Africa’s only high-speed rail service, which already provides a comfortable three-hour ride from Tangier to Casablanca, further south to Agadir and Marrakech is also planned. Morocco hopes all of this will modernize its cities and boost the economy.
On the field, Morocco will hope to launch a credible challenge for a first African World Cup success, although on Sunday they continued their poor return in the Cup of Nations, where their only triumph came 50 years ago.
They surprised with a thrilling run to the last four at the Qatar 2022 World Cup as the first African nation to get that far and will hope for a similar impact at this year’s finals in North America. They are in Group C with Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.
