“The Main Intrigues of the Champions League Quarterfinals: City vs Bayern and Benfica’s 61-Year Curse”

City brought Bayern to a fight, what to expect in Munich. The main intrigues of the Champions League

Will the Bayern players be able to take revenge on Manchester City and avoid relegation from the tournament, and will the 61-year curse of the Portuguese Benfica continue. The main thing about the upcoming day of the 1/4 finals of the Champions League – in the material “RBC Sport”

Read full version

“Inter” (Italy) — “Benfica” (Portugal)

22:00 (Giuseppe Meacca, Milan)

In the first match of the confrontation, Benfica lost to the Milan team in the home arena. The meeting ended with the score 0:2. The goals for Inter were Nicolo Barella and Romelu Lukaku.

Thus, the Portuguese team is close to completing the fight for the main European trophy again. Although 60 years ago the team was a real giant of European football. She became the winner of the European Cup in the 1960/61 and 1961/62 seasons.

But everything changed after the departure of the team’s coach Bela Guttmann. In 1962, the specialist, whose management refused to raise his salary after winning the European Cup final, left the club in protest and declared that without him, Benfica would not be able to win at least one European club competition over the next century. Since then, Benfica have lost five European Cup finals (now the Champions League) and three UEFA Cup finals (now the Europa League). According to the logic of the curse, it should end in 2062.

Inter have come a long way in the Champions League this year. The Italians advanced from the group with Barcelona and Bayern in second place. In the 1/8 finals, the team overcame another Portuguese team Porto. Benfica, in turn, took first place in the group with PSG, Juventus and Maccabi. In the first round, the team easily beat the Belgian Brugge with a total score of 7:1.

“Bavaria” (Germany) — “Manchester City” (England)

22:00 (Allianz Arena, Munich)

The players of the German “Bayern” lost to “Manchester City” in the first match of the 1/4 finals of the Champions League. The meeting at the stadium “Etihad” and ended with a score of 3:0. Goals were scored by Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Erling Holland.

In total, Haaland has 34 goals in 26 games in the Champions League. Previously, no player in the history of the tournament has scored more than 20 goals in 26 games.

Also, the Norwegian this week repeated the record for goals in a season in the English Premier League, the footballer scored a double in the game with Leicester. Holland has 32 goals this season. This is a repeat of the Premier League record for Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah, who scored the same amount in the 2017/18 season. The absolute league record (34 goals) belongs to Andy Cole (Newcastle, 1993/94 season) and Alan Shearer (Blackburn, 1994/95). But at that time, 42 matches were played in the Premier League in a season, from the 1995/96 season there were 38.

After the match, there was also an unpleasant incident in the Bayern camp. Club player Sadio Mane quarreled with teammate Leroy Sane and hit him in the face. Disagreements between the players began on the field. At the 83rd minute, their dispute after one of the game episodes got into the broadcast. The conflict continued in the locker room, Mane hit his partner in the face and broke his lip. The players had to be separated by other Bayern players.

The leadership of the German club decided to remove Mane from the team and fine him, he risks missing the return game with the team from Manchester.

In principle, Bayern this year cannot boast of a clear superiority in the championship, the team periodically loses leadership and does not show stability. What is the change of coach in the middle of the season. The leadership of the Germans dismissed Juliana Nagelsmann, in which there were no failures and invited Thomas Tuchel, who had recently won the Champions League with Chelsea, to the post of head coach.

There is something that unites these clubs. This is the figure of Manchester City head coach Josep Guardiola. He previously managed Bayern, and took over the team immediately after they won the Champions League with Jupp Heynckes. Guardiola’s three years at the Munich club no longer led to victories on the European arena. In 2016, the Spaniard headed Manchester City, won many titles with the team in England, but he never managed to conquer the Champions League.