The draw for the Champions League semi-finals will take place on Friday April 21st but not before the small matter of the quarter-final second leg ties are wrapped up. In just under 48 hours, we will know the first two of those teams that will taking up their places in the last four. Bayern Munich face a tough task at the Bernabeu against Real Madrid while English Champions Leicester City still harbor hope ahead of their clash with Atletico Madrid.
Carlo Ancelotti makes his first return to Real Madrid since taking over at Bayern Munich. The charismatic Italian won the Champions League during his time with Los Blancos, but ultimately failure to secure a league crown cost him his job. Zinedene Zidane is now at the helm. Real Madrid are the defending champions and ‘Zizou’ will do everything in his power to retain the title he won in his first season in charge of the club. No fixture has occurred more often in the Champions League than Bayern vs Madrid – this will be the 23rd meeting between the two, Bayern with eleven wins compared to Real Madrid’s nine. The Bavarians come into Tuesday night’s encounter off the back of a disappointing 0-0 draw with Bayer Leverkusen at the weekend and with just one win in their last four games. We have seen in seasons past, with Bayern cruising at the top of the Bundesliga, their performances slip towards the back-end of a campaign. Real will be looking to take advantage of their opponents’ recent form having secured a hard-fought 3-2 victory away to Sporting Gijon on Saturday extending their unbeaten run to 11 games in all competitions, scoring 30 goals in the process.
Leicester City will still have their UEFA Cup qualifying defeat to Atletico in 1997 in their minds come Tuesday. Already having bettered their first-leg score of 20 years ago, narrowly defeated 1-0 in Spain courtesy of an Antoine Griezmann penalty, the ‘Fearless Foxes’ will have to show some real fight against one of the competitions favourites if they are to replicate the success of the neighbours Nottingham Forest who first won the European Cup back in 1979. Under Diego Simeone, Atletico Madrid have reached the final in two of the last three seasons, only to fall at the last hurdle on both occasions to city rivals Real Madrid. Leicester could welcome back talismanic captain and defender Wes Morgan for the clash at the King Power who missed the last 5 games through injury. With Morgan in the side, Leicester have conceded just once at home in four Champions League matches this season and have already seen off Spanish opposition in the last round, beating Sevilla after a first leg defeat away from home. There has been a real turnaround since relieving Claudio Ranieiri of his duties and replacing him with assistant Craig Shakespeare. They have won six of the nine games since he took charge and have scored 19 goals along the way, however they have not won a game since that defeat a week ago, drawing one and losing one in the Premier League.
Catch all the action and see which stars will shine brightest on Tuesday evening.
Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich
Leicester City vs Atletico Madrid