Paris: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United face Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals while Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur clash in an all-Premier League tie following Friday’s draw. The second leg will take Solskjaer back to the Camp Nou, where in 1999 the Norwegian won United the Champions League by coming off the bench to score a stoppage-time winner against Bayern Munich.
With City and United not allowed to play their home leg in the same week, United will entertain the leaders of La Liga at Old Trafford on April 10, with the return six days later. Barcelona have not lost any of their last 30 home games in the competition, winning all but three of those.
United’s bitter rivals Liverpool will meet FC Porto in the knockout rounds for the second year in succession, while Ajax’s reward for eliminating the holders Real Madrid is a two-legged tie against Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus. English hopes are high that this could be their year in Europe after all four Premier League representatives made it to the last eight.
The last time England had four teams in the quarter-finals, in 2008/09, Barcelona beat the Old Trafford side 2-0 in the final in Rome. The clubs clashed again in the final at Wembley in 2011, with Barca winning 3-1 on that occasion.
“We are happy with United,” said Guillermo Amor, Barcelona’s director of institutional relations.
“We had to be optimistic about all possibilities. They are a good team, a great and important side, but we are in good shape.”
UEFA also drew the semi-finals on Friday, meaning the winners of the Barcelona v United tie will face either Liverpool or Porto in the last four.
That also means Messi and Ronaldo could only go head to head in the final. Jurgen Klopp’s side, fresh from knocking out Bayern Munich in the last 16, should be confident of beating the Portuguese champions after defeating them 5-0 on aggregate in the last 16 on their way to the final last season.
Liverpool will host two-time European Cup winners Porto at Anfield on April 9 in the first leg before heading to the Estadio do Dragao in the return on April 17. There is guaranteed to be one English team in the semi-finals after Tottenham and City were paired together, with the first leg to be played in London on April 9 and the return eight days later.
With Pep Guardiola’s team top of the Premier League, 13 points ahead of Spurs in third, City will be the favourites to advance to their first semi-final since 2016. City have also won their last three meetings with Mauricio Pochettino’s team.
The draw means there will be three clashes between the sides in 11 days, they are also due to meet in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium on April 20.
The winner of the City-Spurs tie will host either Ajax or Juventus in the first leg of the semi-finals. The latter tie is a repeat of the 1996 final, which the Italian club won on penalties against an Ajax team who had lifted the trophy the previous year.
Juventus have lost five finals since then but are hoping Ronaldo can fire them to glory this season after his hat-trick knocked out Atletico Madrid on Tuesday. That result ended Atletico’s dreams of reaching the final, which will be played at their Wanda Metropolitano stadium on Saturday, June 1.
Arsenal draw Napoli in pick
Arsenal will take on Napoli in the pick of the ties in the quarter-finals of this season’s Europa League following Friday’s draw, as Chelsea were paired with outsiders Slavia Prague. Unai Emery’s team will host Napoli at the Emirates Stadium in the first leg on April 11, with the return in Italy a week later.
It is a tough draw for the Gunners, with Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli currently second in Serie A — they were eliminated from the Champions League in the group stage despite beating Liverpool at home and drawing twice with Paris Saint-Germain.
The winners of that tie will go on to a semi-final against the winners of an all-Spanish quarter-final between local rivals Valencia and Villarreal. Both La Liga sides defeated Russian opposition in the last 16, with Valencia edging out Krasnodar and Villarreal, who are struggling domestically, knocking out Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Before winning the Europa League three years running with Sevilla between 2014 and 2016, Emery really came to prominence during three years in charge of Valencia. He led them to three consecutive third-place finishes in La Liga between 2010 and 2012. Emery and Ancelotti are both former Paris Saint-Germain coaches, but the latter may have wished for a match-up with another of his old sides, Chelsea.
Instead, the west London club will face Slavia, heading to the capital of the Czech Republic for the first leg on April 11. Chelsea, winners of the Europa League in 2013, will fancy their chances of advancing, although they would be wise to beware a Slavia side who are top of the Czech league and knocked out Sevilla in the last 16.
The winners of that tie will go through to a semi-final against either Benfica or dark horses Eintracht Frankfurt. Benfica, who dropped out of this season’s Champions League at the group stage, lost to Chelsea in the 2013 Europa League final and were then beaten by Sevilla on penalties in the final a year later.
Eintracht are a dangerous prospect, and the only German survivor in any European competition this season. This year’s Europa League final will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, on May 29. The winners will secure passage to next season’s Champions League group stage.
