Chelsea, Real Madrid’s rival in the Champions League quarterfinals

In the meeting before the final, the winner of a stellar, high-voltage quarterfinal duel between Manchester City and Bayern Munich will await, and the current European champions would also have to face the return home. Even more difficult for Real Madrid, when last season they forged the incredible and epic conquest of the European Cup with their memorable comebacks at the Bernabéu. Among them, against Chelsea himself, in the quarterfinals of the last Champions League, when Madrid, after losing 0-3 in front of their fans, forced extra time in the final stretch (2-3) to dismiss the London team .

Then Real Madrid miraculously demolished Manchester City again in the semifinals in another round of madness at the Bernabéu, alien to all football logic, and at that same intersection Carlo Ancelotti’s team and Pep Guardiola’s team could meet again, which is season is the big favorite to win the Champions League that he craves so much. To reach that stage, against City or Bayern, Madrid must first overcome a Chelsea that, lost in the Premier, is focused on the highest European competition that won, for the second time, in 2021.

Then, with Thomas Tuchel as coach, they precisely eliminated Madrid in the semifinals. Now, in the reconstruction period and after a spectacular investment (600 million euros and half of them in the winter market), he will try it in the quarterfinals with his replacement on the bench, Graham Potter, and with Joao Félix in his ranks. The Portuguese on loan from Atlético is one of his most recent great reinforcements, along with Enzo Fernández, Mykahylo Mudryk or Wesley Fofana.

Luck did not smile on Real Madrid this time in the draw, since they not only fell into the toughest part of the draw, to see the champion compromised by the three most powerful and feared rivals who entered the hype this Friday, but will also have the field factor, theoretically, always against him. After four successive knockout rounds, the first three last year thanks to Madrid’s idyll with the Bernabéu, the whites, so unpredictable, now have to respond with the first leg in front of their fans. On the other hand, the pass to the game for the title will be settled after the Milan-Naples and Benfica-Inter qualifiers, which could lead to a fratricidal Italian semifinal if the Portuguese team falls in the quarterfinals.

Real Madrid must prevent the other semifinal from being purely English if City confirms the predictions against Bayern, although the return of this promising quarterfinal match will be played in Munich. With Madrid’s idyll with the Champions League and its competitive and winning gene in this competition in which it has become, no one can question the ability of the king of Europe to beat Chelsea in a double game, although this season the ‘blue’ team He is out of the fight for all the titles in England, also far from the passport for the next Champions League, and only clings to the great continental tournament.

The quarterfinals:

-Real Madrid-Chelsea.

-Benfica-Inter.

-Manchester City-Bayern Munich.

-MIlan-Naples.