Real Madrid and Bayern advance to Champions League semi-finals without English clubs

Paris. Real Madrid saved the honor of Spanish football in the quarterfinals of the Champions League by defeating defending champions Manchester City on penalties (4-3 after a 1-1 draw) this Wednesday, while Bayern Munich eliminated Arsenal (1-0).

On Tuesday, Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund had qualified by overcoming first-leg defeats to win their respective ties against Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid.

Real Madrid’s qualification prevented the Spanish League from being left out of the semifinals of UEFA continental tournaments for the first time since 2005. In the Europa League and the Conference League, no club in the country had even managed to reach the quarterfinals. final.

It was England who lived a Wednesday to forget by losing their last two representatives in the top European competition.

The Champions League will return in two weeks with the first leg of the semifinals on Tuesday, April 30 and Wednesday, May 1, while the second leg of that round will be a week later, on Tuesday, May 7 and Wednesday, May 8, where the two teams that will compete in the grand final on June 1 at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Lunin consumes revenge

Revenge was not long in coming. Real Madrid had been eliminated in the last edition of the Champions League after being beaten 4-0 in the second leg of the semi-finals at the Etihad Stadium, the scene where this Wednesday they won 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. to seal his return to the semifinals and leave out his executioner from a year ago.

The 3-3 score in the first leg at the Santiago Bernabéu left the situation very open for this second leg, in which the Brazilian Rodrygo (12) put the Spaniards ahead, but the Belgian Kevin De Bruyne (76) tied.

The match went to extra time and then to the penalty shootout, where the superhero of the night was the Ukrainian goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, who with two saves on the shots of Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic ended up giving the visitors the ticket for the next round.

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“Everyone assumed we were dead, but we should never assume we were dead, Madrid never dies,” celebrated Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti.

For the fourth season in a row, Real Madrid, which holds the record for titles in the tournament (14), will be present in the semifinals, which will be deprived of Manchester City for the first time since 2020.

“Losing like this hurts. You can’t always win, we have once again proven ourselves against a great team, I don’t know what we could have done more,” said Manchester City coach Josep Guardiola.

His team will therefore not be able to fulfill its objective of revalidating its European crown, something that only Real Madrid achieved in this century by chaining three titles between 2016 and 2018. No English club has managed to be European champion two years in a row since Nottingham Forest in 1979 and 1980.

Now City will have to concentrate on the domestic level, where they can achieve a double since they are qualified for the semi-finals of the English Cup and are the current leader of the Premier League.

Real Madrid will not have much time to enjoy this victory, since on Sunday they host Barcelona in the ‘Clásico’ of Spanish football, in which Ancelotti’s pupils can leave the title practically seen for sentencing in case of victory.

Kimmich fires Arsenal

The salvation of Bayern Munich’s season is to lift the ‘Orejona’. After being dethroned last weekend in the Bundesliga by Bayer Leverkusen, after eleven titles in a row, the Bavarian giant needed to advance to the semifinals in the Champions League and did not fail against Arsenal, whom they beat 1-0, after a 2-2 draw -2 one way in London.

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Joshua Kimmich, with a header in the 63rd minute from Raphaël Guerreiro’s cross, scored the qualifying goal.

“It is a great pride to go to the semifinals. Let’s see what happens in two weeks [contra el Real Madrid]but for our part we are going to do everything possible to finish the season at Wembley,” promised coach Thomas Tuchel.

Bayern finally made it past the quarterfinals, a round from which they had been eliminated in the previous three seasons. He had not surpassed that stage since 2020, when he achieved his sixth and until now last European champion title.

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At Arsenal, the dream of a first trophy in this tournament will have to continue waiting. Has not reached the semifinals since 2009.