The English Premier League broke a record by setting five teams into the UEFA Champions League knockout round. By the quarterfinal round, only two remained. Only one will be left standing in the semifinals as this morning’s draw in Nyon, Switzerland pitted Liverpool against Manchester City.
UEFA did a good job of keeping the most powerful of the powerhouses as far away from each other as possible for (potentially) as long as possible. Take a look at the full draw below:
The official result of the #UCLdraw.
Predict the final… ? pic.twitter.com/YAlLd1tWJK
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 16, 2018
It is a bit of a shame, almost, that these two entertaining, high-scoring sides have to clash now, instead of in a later round which might be more deserving.
On the other hand, at least we will likely get to see extremely exciting football in this round, as Liverpool’s 4-3 victory over City in January at Anfield was the perfect commercial for the Premier League. It was indeed a thriller, and we’ll be very lucky if they can duplicate a showing like that.
Champions League key dates:
Quarter-finals, first leg (3–4 April)
Quarter-finals, second leg (10–11 April)
Champions League Semi-finals and final
Draw (13 April)
Semi-finals, first leg (24–25 April)
Semi-finals, second leg (1–2 May)
Final, NSC Olimpiyski, Kyiv (26 May)
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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