Champions League draw: Bayern Munich face Manchester City ...

17 Mar 2023

CBSSports.com

Champions League draw Bayern Munich face Manchester City

The quarterfinal matchups will be decided on Friday morning

The UEFA Champions League quarterfinal and semifinal draws will took place on Friday in Nyon, Switzerland. With no seeding rules at this stage, any of the teams could face each other and sides from the same country could be, and were drawn together with Napoli and AC Milan being the familiar foes set to face each other. The draw kicked off at 7 a.m. ET on Paramount+ and it provided plenty of intrigue. The headline event may be Manchester City squaring off against Napoli, but the biggest news is that City, and Bayern are joined by Real Madrid on the same side of the bracket, while the three Italian teams, and Benfic are on the other side, meaning an unexpected finalist is assured in Istanbul

More to come.

Champions League quarterfinals

Real Madrid vs. ChelseaThis is a rematch of last year's quarterfinal, a dramatic back and forth tie that ended 5-4 with Madrid advancing to the semifinals. Carlo Ancelotti will once again be facing his old club (and, in fact there's a possible world where the well travelled manager could face three clubs he's managed on the way to the title in Chelsea, Bayern Munich and then Napoli or AC Milan).

Inter vs. SL BenficaInter get their second Portuguese side in a row after narrowly advancing past Porto in the round of 16. This will be no easy task for the Italian side as Benfica have looked dominant in both the Champions League and their domestic league this season. where they lead Porto by eight points.

Manchester City vs. Bayern MunichThe marquee matchup of the quarterfinal round this is the first time these two sides have met since the group stage in 2014-15. Bayern, then managed by current City boss Pep Guardiola top the group although each of these sides won their head-to-head matchup at home. It's a stroke of misfortune for these two sides, the odds-on favorites to win the tournament, to get drawn together at such an early stage.

AC Milan vs. NapoliThe fact that AC Milan, Napoli and Inter are all draw on the same side of the bracket mean that either Benfica will be the most unlikely finalists in a generation or an Italian side will be vying for the Champions League title in Istanbul. Napoli have dominated Serie A, where they have an 18 point lead in the table, can they repeat the trick in Europe?

Champions League semifinals