The Champions League: Quarter Finals
Omar Mahmoud
Hey guys! Welcome back to another Champions League article.
The Quarter Finals Draw is here! Amazing!
The Round of 16 finalized on Wednesday, March 13, and the draw was held March 15th.
Let’s recap the 8 matchups in the Round of 16 (the team in bold is the one I had predicted to go through):
Copenhagen vs Manchester City
RB Leipzig vs Real Madrid
PSG vs Real Sociedad
PSV vs Dortmund (no prediction)
Lazio vs Bayern
Inter Milan vs Atletico Madrid
Porto vs Arsenal
Napoli vs Barcelona
And here the teams that made it through:
Manchester City
Real Madrid
PSG
Dortmund
Bayern
Atletico Madrid
Arsenal
Barcelona
So, as you can see, I am the GOAT.
Undefeated.
7 for 7.
But, to be fair, I kind of got lucky in some of them. Let’s recap the ties quickly before looking at the next round.
Copenhagen vs Manchester City
Man City won 6-2 on aggregate, 3-1 in each leg. Clear, easy and convincing win just as I predicted. Not much to say.
RB Leipzig vs Real Madrid
Real Madrid won 2-1 on aggregate. I was right. I predicted that it would be a hard match for Madrid, but they would end up winning, which is what happened. Madrid won the first leg 0-1 away from home, and drew 1-1 in the home leg, with a controversy and, in my opinion, a robbery from Madrid with one of their player choking a Leipzig player without getting a Red Card. RB Leipzig could have qualified, but, hey they did not, and the prediction was right. Win with tight margins.
PSG vs Real Sociedad
As I predicted, PSG easily went through, winning 4-1 on aggregate.
PSV vs Dortmund
After I published the last article, I actually confirmed and locked in my final answer that my prediction was Dortmund would win. And, I was right. But don't worry it does not count. Dortmund drew away from home 1-1 and then beat PSV 2-0 at home to win 3-1 on aggregate.
Bayern vs Lazio
Ok, here’s the thing. Bayern are seriously underperforming this year, and they played the first leg away from home and LOST 1-0 to Lazio. But, then, Bayern showed everyone why they have 6 Champions Leagues and won 3-0 and qualified 3-1 on aggregate. Not an easy win like I thought, but a win nonetheless.
Arsenal Vs Porto
Same thing with Arsenal. Porto shocked everyone by beating Arsenal 1-0 in the first leg at home. I started seriously doubting my prediction. Then Arsenal also won 1-0 at home, and the aggregate was 1-1. They went into extra time and then the first UEFA Champions League penalty shootout since the 2016 final happened. EIGHT YEARS! Arsenal won with their goalie, David Raya, saving 3 penalties which led Arsenal qualifying to the quarter finals for the first time since 2010. Again, not an easy win but a win.
Inter Milan vs Atletico Madrid
Here is the thing, after I predicted Atletico Madrid, I actually changed my mind and said Inter, and went as far as saying they would be title contenders. When they won 1-0 at home, I was more convinced of it, but, somehow, my prediction just had to turn out true, and Atletico Madrid won 2-1 at home in the second leg, clutching in the last minutes to get the 2nd goal and making the aggregate 2-2. They then played a goalless extra time period which went to penalties. Atletico Madrid’s INSANE atmosphere carried them through the game and they won again. Madrid’s goalie, Oblak, saved 2 pens, and the last one was skied by Lautaro Martinez, eliminating Inter. The funny thing is this was the day after Arsenal’s shootout.
Barca vs Napoli
Both played horribly. Genuinely horrible football. However, Barca’s European heritage got them a 1-1 draw away from home and a 3-1 win at home, and so they qualified 4-2 on aggregate. But truly like I said. The teams were terrible.
Match-Ups
Now let us talk about the rest of the tournament.
The Matchups are
Atletico vs Dortmund
PSG vs Barcelona
Arsenal vs Bayern
Madrid vs City
Atletico vs Dortmund: The Battle of the Stadiums
On paper the weakest tie. Both teams are easily the underdogs of the tournaments, but I still think it might be a highly entertaning one. Off the pitch at least.
The atmosphere. Oh my word. Atletico spurred their comeback against Inter due to their stadium and their awesome fans at the Wanda Metropolitano. At the same time, Dortmund’s fans and stadium are also truly splendid. In fact, their stadium is condidered one of the best in Europe. In my opinion, Atletico’s home stadium will give them a win over their German opponents, and if they can pull it together in the return leg they just might get a draw or a slender loss to Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park.
Basically, it will be a matter of who can win with a bigger score on their stadium so the aggregate goes in their favour, because with BOTH atmospheres, each team can gurantee at least a draw on their stadium. This tie will be insane.
In the end, I have Atletico Madrid going through. Personally though, if this prediction goes wrong I will consider it a win as I want Dortmund.
PSG vs Barcelona: The PSG redemption?
The winner of Atletico vs Dortmund plays the winner of this tie. As I said last time, Barcelona are really weak this season. They have their moments, but I don’t know if they will be able to win. PSG are actually clicking this year. PSG are always a very weak European Team and they don’t have the ‘heritage’ we talked about. Their team always feels forced with all the superstars. They are always eliminated in the Round of 16 or Quarters, but this year might be their redemption to make it to their first Semi Final since 2020.
This year, they are not flashy. They are well drilled and strong. Mbappe is on FIRE and is probably going to destroy Barcelona’s defence, which isn’t even that strong to begin with. However, Barcelona has a strong home advantage, and might get a win there. But, overall, I believe PSG are going to be the winner of this tie, albeit with a small margin. Maybe 2 goals.
Arsenal vs Bayern: The Strong vs The Historic
Let’s just say Bayern are crap right now. On the other hand, Arsenal are genuinely cooking in the Premier league. The last time they played each other, Bayern won 10-2 on aggregate, 5-1 in each leg. That was back in 2017. And people think it might happen again, but I don’t think so. Honestly, I think Arsenal will win the first leg at home, just barely. Maybe a 2-1 or a 1-0. Then the Bayern genes will hit again. Muller and Co. will bring Arsenal to the Allianz Arena and beat them, with a good margin, maybe a 2-0 or 3-1. Because, again like their German Counterpart Dortmund, Bayern’s fans and stadium are insane. I predict Bayern winning 3-2 or 4-3 on aggregate.
Real Madrid Vs Man City: The GOATS vs The Holder - The Repeat
This is by far the strongest tie. It is also the third time in a row that it’s happened. In the first one, Real Madrid had a historic comeback against Manchester City, losing 4-3 away and then drawing in the last 2 minutes to go to extra time and score a third to win. Last time, City drew 1-1 away and then won 4-0 at home. Each time the winner went on to win the whole thing. This time it is in the Quarters not the Semis, but again the winner of this will be the favourite to win the whole thing by a mile, and any team they face will be an underdog. Remember last time with the Dortmund vs PSV thing? Yeah, same here. This game is pretty much 50-50. ANYTHING can happen. City winning both legs? Why not? Madrid winning the first leg at home and then City making a comeback in the second? Very possible. Each team winning one game and the result depending on who scored more? Yep. The quality in both teams' midfield is huge, their attacks are both on fire, and their squad depth is extremely high.
So I will keep this my wildcard.
There we go. We will meet again in the April edition after the Quarters finish and when we can discuss the last 2 ties before the final.
See you then!
Make sure to check out my previous articles in the series.
Page layout by Omar Mahmoud