Real Madrid and Manchester City to meet in blockbuster Champions League quarter-final
Real Madrid are 14-time champions and knocked City out in the 2022 semi-finals but Carlo Ancelotti's side were soundly beaten 5-1 on aggregate by Pep Guardiola's team in the last four last year.
"We don't have another option. It looks like a little bit of a tradition... playing the kings of the competition, winning 14 Champions Leagues," Guardiola told reporters.
"Hopefully we can arrive in a good moment. There's still three weeks before the first game (leg) in Madrid, we'll see."
Paris St-Germain, who are seeking their first Champions League title, will take on Barcelona while Atletico Madrid face Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, which means all three Spanish teams have the opportunity to reach the semi-finals.
This may also be Kylian Mbappe's last chance to win the title with PSG with the French forward set to leave the Ligue 1 club at the end of the season. PSG reached the final in 2020 where they lost to Bayern Munich.
Arsenal returned to the quarter-finals for the first time in 14 years and they play Bayern Munich which will give the German club's star striker Harry Kane - who has scored 36 goals this season - another crack at his former north London rivals.
Kane has played Arsenal 19 times in all competitions and scored 14 goals. The former Tottenham Hotspur striker is the joint-top scorer in the Champions League this season alongside Antoine Griezmann, Erling Haaland and Mbappe with six goals.
Six-times champions Bayern have been Arsenal's biggest nemesis in the competition, with the German side triumphing in all four knockout ties between the two sides.
The last time they met, Bayern beat Arsenal 10-2 on aggregate in the last 16 in 2017. Bayern have won each of the last three meetings 5-1.
However, Bayern will not have their fans in the away end due to a UEFA ban after their supporters threw fireworks onto the pitch during their 3-1 win at Lazio earlier this month.
"We certainly have the most difficult path ahead of us that you can imagine. We now face one of the best teams in Europe," Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel said.
"They've been playing consistently at the top level for two years. They're a homogenous, dangerous team, they score a huge number of goals. We'll be ready, though. We know our qualities."
The path to the semi-finals was also set, with City and Premier League leaders Arsenal on a collision course if they advance.
The quarter-final draw was the last in the current format with UEFA adopting an all-new format from the 2024-25 season onwards.
The Champions League final will be held on June 1st at the 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium in London.
Champions League quarter-finals:
QF2: Atletico Madrid vs Dortmund
QF3: Real Madrid vs Manchester City
QF4: Paris St-Germain vs Barcelona
Semi-finals:
SF1: Winners of QF2 vs winners of QF4 (winner to be nominal home side in final)
SF2: Winners of QF1 vs winners of QF3
Dates:
Quarter-finals
First legs: April 9th/10th
Second legs: April 16th/17th
Semi-finals
First legs: April 30th/May 1st
Second legs: May 7th/8th
The Final
Saturday, June 1st, Wembley Stadium London
Draw procedure:
At this stage of the competition, no teams were seeded and there were no country restrictions - anyone could draw anyone.
The balls containing the names of the quarter-finalists were placed in a bowl and shuffled. The first and second balls drawn determined the first quarter-final pairing, with the first ball drawn representing the home team for the first leg. That procedure was repeated with the remaining balls to complete the quarter-final pairings.
For the semi-final draw, four balls containing slips of paper marked 'winners of quarter-final one' to 'winners of quarter-final four' were placed in a large central bowl and shuffled. The first and second balls drawn determine the first semi-final pairing, with the first ball drawn representing the home team for the first leg. That procedure was repeated with the remaining balls in the bowl to complete the semi-final pairings.
The same procedure was done for the final with the first ball designating the nominal home side.
