First modification: 15/04/2021 – 04:39
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Manchester City, the English team led by Pep Guardiola, managed to reach the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League for the second time in recent years after beating German Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-final bracket. For its part, Real Madrid took advantage of the income from the first leg to eliminate Liverpool and will now face Chelsea in search of their fourteenth ‘orejona’.
With Bayern Munich out of the tournament, following their elimination by Paris Saint-Germain, the 2020-2021 Champions League will have a new champion and four teams still remain in the search for the two tickets to Istanbul, Turkey, host of the final May 29.
The ‘citizens’ dominated the quarterfinal key by defeating Germany’s Borussia Dortmund in both games, and by the same score (2-1).
“I am very happy for this club, for its president and for the fans. All over the world. It is the second time that we are in the semis, so it is not history for the club, but we are beginning to build it,” said the coach. from the English team, the Spanish Pep Guardiola in statements quoted by EFE.
With this, Manchester City went on to occupy one of the places in the semifinal, where they will face Paris Saint-Germain. The duel, which will be played on April 27, has focused attention on the style of play of the two teams, the players and the experience of their coaches.
On the other hand, the tie will put two of the biggest investors in European football in recent years face to face. The City Football Group (CFG), a United Arab Emirates (UAE) society led by Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahya, has dominated Manchester City (its flagship club among 10 other professional teams) since 2008.
There is also the Qatari investment fund, led by businessman Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, which acquired Paris Saint-Germain in 2011 and has since made disbursements in order to improve the team, incorporate the best players and treat of winning the Champions League for the first time and being the second French club to do so.
Chelsea and Madrid for the old memories
The winner of the duel between Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain will have to face the winner of the match between Real Madrid and English Chelsea in the final, clubs that are returning to the semi-final stage after a long period.
Madrid, also known as merengue box, reached the semifinals for the first time since the 2017-2018 season, when they last lifted the title.
In this tournament, those led by Zinedine Zidane have played from less to more as they started the group stage with doubts, in which they lost twice to Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine, but then they were able to reach the leadership of the group in recent days.
They achieved their place in the semifinal after defeating Liverpool of England with an aggregate score of three goals for one (3 -1) that was achieved in the first leg playing at the Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium in their sports city.
For their part, Chelsea, which reached the semi-final for the first time since the 2013-2014 season, also took advantage of the income from the first leg to qualify against Porto of Portugal.
In the first match, the English beat the Portuguese eleven two to zero (2-0), but they fell one to zero in the round. It is worth saying that both matches of this tie were played at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium in Seville due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Only three times have these teams met in the framework of a European competition, the last of them in 1998 when they met for the UEFA Super Cup, with victory for the English. The other two occasions correspond to the final of the defunct Recopa de Europa, won by Chelsea in round-trip matches.
With EFE and Reuters
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