London (AFP)
The confrontation between Manchester City and Bayern Munich, on Tuesday, grabs attention in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the European Champions League in football, which witnesses an exam for Real Madrid, the Spanish champions, with the injured English Chelsea, and a fiery Italian duel between Napoli and Milan.
The confrontation between City and Bayern will be the first between them in the knockout stages in a competition that Bavarian won six times, the last of which was in 2020, while City is searching for its first title.
And while Bayern got rid of the star-studded French Paris Saint-Germain (1-0 and 2-0), German city Leipzig swept 8-1 on aggregate, and former Bosnian sports director Hassan Salihamidzic described the confrontation as a “mini-final.”
“We are facing another team with a lot of capabilities,” he added. It’s the strongest team for me. It was amazing once morest RB Leipzig. We will enjoy this confrontation.”
This confrontation will pit the Spanish coach of City, Josep Guardiola, once morest the team he supervised from 2013 to 2016, with whom he won the German League title three times and the Club World Cup.
Also, Guardiola, who was crowned coach with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, will stand up to the new coach of Bayern, Thomas Tuchel, who was deprived of continental glory in the 2021 final, when he was at the head of the technical management of Chelsea (1-0) in front of empty stands in Porto at the height of the pandemic. COVID-19.
Tuchel, who admires Guardiola’s style and was suddenly appointed to replace Julian Nagelsmann due to a decline in the level according to his management, hopes to repeat what he did with Chelsea, where he arrived four months ago following his dismissal from Saint-Germain’s coaching.
He said following his recent victory over Freiburg (1-0), where he remained the leader of the German League, two points ahead of Borussia Dortmund: “We have some players who suffer from injuries, while City was in great shape at last. But in football things are not so simple. We will face them with courage, knowing that we have to put in a great performance.”
And while Guardiola is still a strong contender for the top spot in the English Premier League with Arsenal, his career will be judged by his results in the Champions League. “I don’t agree with that, but obviously we will be judged by this competition.”
Guardiola is counting on the lethal Norwegian scorer Erling Haaland, who has scored 44 goals in various competitions this season, including a wonderful acrobatics at the weekend once morest Southampton.
Pep said regarding the 22-year-old player, who scored 33 goals in 25 Champions League matches, “We tested two decades of scoring time with the superstars (Portuguese) Cristiano Ronaldo and (Argentine) Lionel Messi, and he is at the same level.”
The winner will meet between City and Bayern, the qualifier for the other upcoming confrontation between Real Madrid, the 14-time (record-holder) champions, and Chelsea.
And following getting rid of Liverpool in the final price by beating it 5-2 away from home and 1-0 back, the defending champion collides on Wednesday at home with another English team, Chelsea, in a repeat of the semi-finals of the 2020-2021 season, when the London team emerged victorious (1-1 and 2). -0) and the quarter-finals of last season, when the Royal Club won the first leg away from home 3-1 and qualified for the semi-finals despite losing the second leg at home 2-3 following extension in an epic match, especially from French Real striker Karim Benzema.
Italian Carlo Ancelotti, the champion of the competition four times as a coach (a record), will meet his former London team.
And while Barcelona seems close to winning the Spanish League title for the first time since 2019, Real is devoting itself to its beloved competition, noting that it also reached the local cup final, where it will meet Osasuna.
On the other hand, Chelsea is going through a bad phase despite the huge signings he made, so he sacked his coach Graham Potter following falling to eleventh place in the Premier League and appointed his former player and coach Frank Lampard on a temporary basis until the end of the season.
Lampard said: “My mission? Restore the highest degree of confidence in the group.
Milan, the Italian champion of the competition seven times, will be facing his compatriot Napoli, who imposed himself as one of the best teams in the old continent this season, by leading the local league by 16 points from Lazio and reaching the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in his history.
It is true that Napoli came very close to winning its first league title since 1990 in the days of the late Argentine legend Diego Maradona, but Milan swept it early this month with a clean four in its own backyard, when its injured Nigerian scorer Victor Osimhen was absent.
This is the first Italian confrontation in the knockout stages since the Milan Derby in the 2005 semi-finals.
Napoli coach Stefano Pioli said: “I would have preferred not to meet an Italian team. Milan has the experience of a competition that won the title seven times.
The winner of this confrontation will meet the winner between Italian Inter and Benfica, which kicks off on Tuesday at the Portuguese capital team.
Inter, who qualified for the quarter-finals for the first time since 2012 and the last of the Italian teams to win the title in 2010, led by Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, will be facing Benfica, in a repeat of the 1965 final, when Nerazzurri won its second consecutive title by winning 1-0.
For his part, Benfica has not succeeded in going beyond the quarter-finals since reaching the 1990 final.
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