Will master face the apprentice?

IT is surely written in the stars that we will get an all-english Champions League semi-final. Why? Because there has to be an English team guaranteed for the final at Wembley on Saturday, June 1. That’s just how these things work.

Manchester City face the harder task with Real Madrid in their quarter final – but do not be fooled into thinking Arsenal have it easy against Bayern Munich.

City have the knowhow to beat Real. When they beat the Spanish giants 4-0 at the Etihad last May, it was their single best team performance under Pep Guardiola.

Real Madrid are so much better this season – in no small part because of Jude Bellingham – than they were last year. But I still think City have the edge.

Arsenal have a great opportunity to beat Bayern. The Germans are in disarray at the moment.

But personal pride means they will lift themselves for the occasion. It will be far harder than people think but I fancy Arsenal to sneak through.

MARK JONES

This Premier League title race is an exhausting watch, and you can bet that they’ll certainly be wanting to see an all-english Champions League semifinal in Liverpool, where any additional stresses and strains on Arsenal and

City will be welcomed. I’m not as convinced as many that it’ll happen though.

The Gunners have the ability to rack up a decent first leg lead against Bayern but if they only go to Germany with a one goal advantage then things could turn sour.

For City, the tie is the opposite way around, and if they are as open as they were at Palace at the weekend in Madrid then the hosts will punish them.

It might go against the grain but I think only one of two goes through, and I’d make Arsenal the favourites.

MIKE WALTERS

Arsenal are bang in form and Manchester City are not far behind them – so on paper, they have a great chance of meeting in the Champions League semifinals. Whether or not it would help either of their title challenges on the home front, only time will tell. And, frankly, both Premier League meetings between the Gunners and City this season were so dull that I would rather watch paint dry. Where Mikel Arteta thought the 0-0 draw at the Etihad on Easter Day was thrilling, neutrals agreed it was a monument to tedium.

Oh, and one other thing. While it is gratifying for English clubs to enjoy success in Europe, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

For the European Cup to retain a frisson of excitement and sense of occasion, let’s see different cultures, different casts, different venues, different stories – not the same stuff we watch every week in the

Premier League.

MEGAN FERINGA

After 180 minutes, one Arsenal goal, no Manchester City goals and six combined shots on target, the spectre of an all-english semi-final hardly wets the palate.

Harry Kane’s return to north London has all the narrative ingredients for an upset but Arsenal are the best defensive team in Europe at the moment. They stifled City without flinching. David Raya is a goalkeeping Dr Octopus.

See you soon for Pep versus Arteta.