Fortune elusive for Spanish football in the Champions League quarterfinals

Tough Champions League quarter-final draw for Spanish football. Beyond the good news of having avoided a fratricidal duel, the rivals of the surviving League teams in the highest continental competition invite us to think about very complicated qualifiers, as, on the other hand, could be expected from the penultimate round of the best club tournament of the world.

Perhaps the best standing among the complicated opponents is Real Madrid, who will nevertheless face the defending champions, Chelsea, the Whites’ executioner in the semifinals of the last edition. The paths of ‘blues’ and madridistas had never crossed in the Champions League until last season and now they meet again less than a year later. This time the first assault will be at Stamford Bridge and the return at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Even worse fortune for Atlético, who will face Guardiola’s Manchester City, leader of the English Premier League, current runner-up and perhaps the favorite to win the ‘orejona’. At least the tie will be resolved at the Metropolitano, after the first leg at the Etihad.

Meanwhile, Villarreal will face the powerful Bayern Munich, who reached the quarterfinals after scoring seven goals against Salzburg in Bavarian land, where the second leg will be played. Finally, Liverpool has undoubtedly been the most graceful team, with the surprising Benfica as a rival and the possibility of sentencing the pass to the semifinals at Anfield.

Looking ahead to the semi-finals, Real Madrid and Atlético could face each other in the semi-finals, as happened in the 2016-17 season. In that case, the first leg would be played in a rojiblanco fiefdom and the return leg in Chamartín. For its part, Villarreal would cross paths with the winner of the duel between Benfica and Liverpool if they left Bayern behind, as they did in the round of 16 with Juventus.