Liverpool and City on collision course for final showdown
can overcome the Portuguese champions Porto.
Liverpool’s clash with Zinedine Zidane’s side will be a repeat of the controversial 2018 final, when Gareth Bale scored twice to help the Spanish giants win 3-1, making it a hat-trick of titles, and Liverpool were left fuming over the tactics of Sergio Ramos.
Klopp is thrilled at the prospect of taking Real on again and said: “It’s exciting. It’s obviously a tough draw but I am fine with it because if you look at all the other teams you think, ‘Oh my God’ because they are all strong and all have quality. I am really looking forward to the games.
“It’s only just under three years ago that we faced them and it was a tough night for us, so to get the chance to play them again is cool.
“I know it’s a different round and we don’t know where we will play and stuff like this, but that’s all OK. If it will be Budapest, that’s fine. The home game maybe hopefully at Anfield, that would be great as well.”
Manchester City will have to do it the hard way if they are to reach their first final. The Premier League leaders will have to get past Germans Borussia Dortmund and hotshot striker Erling Haaland in the quarter final – and then overcome reigning champions Bayern Munich.
That would see Guardiola going up against his former club, who have not lost in Europe since 2019 and are unbeaten in their past 31 home games in all competitions.
City have targeted Dortmund’s Haaland in a £140million deal this summer. They will also have to stop his team-mate, England’s Jadon Sancho, who left the Etihad in 2017 following a bust-up with Guardiola.
The Spaniard said: “Dortmund is tough, but all of them would have been.We try to play a good first game and then a good second game. If we do good games, we will go through; if they do good games they will. There are no more secrets than that.”
Chelsea appear to have the easier route, but boss Tuchel knows he can take nothing for granted after seeing Porto knock out Juventus in the previous round.
He said: “Many people will make us favourites against Porto. But that does not help.You can ask people in Turin if it helps to be favourites.”
In the Europa League, Manchester United have been drawn against Spanish side Granada in the quarterfinals, while Arsenal will take on Slavia Prague.