NYON: The Champions League quarter-finals will feature rematches from two of the past three finals.

Defending champions Bayern Munich were drawn on Friday to face Paris St Germain, the team they beat 1-0 in the final last August. Real Madrid will play Liverpool, the team they beat 3-1 in the 2018 final to win a record-extending 13th European title.

Also, Manchester City was paired with Borussia Dortmund, putting the best defence in this season’s competition against the top scorer, Erling Haaland.

City have kept clean sheets in seven straight games and have only conceded one goal in the 14th-minute of their opening group game against FC Porto. Haaland, a 20-year-old forward from Norway, has scored 10 goals in the Champions League this season and is widely seen as a future transfer target for City.

Porto will face Chelsea, though it is unclear if neutral venues will be needed because of travel restrictions between Portugal and England amid the pandemic.

The Qatari owners of PSG have invested fortunes into trying to conquer the Champions League and came tantalisingly close last season when they reached the final only for Bayern’s Kingsley Coman to break their hearts with the only goal in Lisbon.

Bayern draw PSG, Real to face Liverpool

Since then manager Thomas Tuchel has gone and been replaced by Mauricio Pochettino who took Tottenham Hotspur to the 2019 Champions League final where they lost to Liverpool.

Pochettino now faces a daunting task if he is to deliver the prize the Parisian club desire so badly.

Bundesliga leaders Bayern reached the quarter-final for a record 19th time by cruising past Lazio 6-2 on aggregate and remain the team to beat in Europe, having won 18 and drawn one of their 19 games in the Champions League since the beginning of last season.

The first leg is set to be played in Germany on April 6 or 7, with the return in Paris a week later.

“The draw is of course a difficult one, and surprises exist, but we’re going to play against the team that is the best on the continent at the moment,” said Pochettino, who was appointed in January and oversaw a 5-2 aggregate win over Barcelona in the last 16.

“We’re optimistic, the team will be competitive, we knocked out Barcelona and now we are focused on Bayern, with one objective, that of qualifying for the semi-finals,” the Argentine said to PSG’s official website.

Liverpool’s Premier League title defence crumbled long ago but if anything can rouse the Anfield club it is a clash with Real in the Champions League.

Juergen Klopp’s side are languishing in sixth place in the Premier League, 25 points behind Manchester City, and with no guarantee of a top-four finish they might need to win a seventh European crown just to get back in the competition.

Klopp’s side are due to be away from home in the first leg, but it remains to be seen where that match will be played.

Atletico Madrid’s home leg against Chelsea in the last 16 ended up being moved to the Romanian capital Bucharest due to restrictions imposed on travel to Spain by British authorities.

The winner between Liverpool and Real will go onto a semi-final against either Chelsea or Porto, throwing up the possibility of an all-English last-four tie. Liverpool beat Chelsea in the semi-finals in 2005 and again in 2007.

Real have often struggled this season too but they may be optimistic about their prospects in the wake of the draw.

“I think they would have signed for that, in fact with two hands,” former Real player, coach and sporting director Jorge Valdano told Spanish TV channel Movistar Plus. “They’ve potentially got two teams from the Premier League but Liverpool are not what they were last year. Chelsea are a very competitive team but they are not one of the most dangerous teams in the draw.”

Chelsea, unbeaten in 13 games since Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard, may feel they have got the easier option in Porto who they have beaten in five of their eight previous meetings.

Yet while Chelsea’s clinical defeat of Atletico Madrid in the last 16 was impressive, so was the way Porto knocked out Juventus in a thriller and the Portuguese side will take that belief into their clash with the London club.

However, that tie could also be relocated given travel restrictions between the United Kingdom and Portugal which prompted both legs of the recent Europa League clash between Arsenal and Benfica to be played at neutral venues, in Italy and Greece.

Meanwhile City will be strong favourites against Dortmund, with the winner of that tie going through to a semi-final showdown with either Bayern or PSG.

Travel restrictions between the UK and Germany could also have an impact on City’s tie against Dortmund. Both legs of City’s last-16 tie against Borussia Moenchengladbach were played in Budapest, as were both legs of Liverpool’s tie against RB Leipzig in the last round.

The first legs will be played on April 6 or 7, with the second legs set for April 13 or 14. This season’s semi-finals are due to be played in late April and early May, with the final scheduled for May 29 in Istanbul.

The Champions League quarter-final line-up is the first without either Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo since 2005. No Italian team is involved for the first time since 2016.

The draw includes six previous champions who have a combined 29 titles in the 65-year history of the European Cup and Champions League. City and PSG are chasing a first title.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2021