Champions League 2022/23: Quarter-Final Draw & Preview
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KUWAIT CITY, Mar 29: The draw for the quarter-finals of the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League has produced four mouth-watering match-ups.
Manchester City remain the favourites with the bookmakers, despite drawing Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in the last eight of the competition.
Read on as we take a look at the draw, before previewing the latest round of ties in UEFA’s top football club competition.
Champions League Quarter-Final Draw
The draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League is as follows.
– Benfica vs Inter Milan
– Manchester City vs Bayern Munich
– Real Madrid vs Chelsea
– AC Milan vs Napoli
The first legs of the quarter-finals are scheduled for April 11/12, with the reverse fixtures taking place on April 18/19.
Champions League Quarter-Final Preview
Man City were rated as the favourites to lift the prestigious trophy before the draw was made, but their odds lengthened after they were paired with Bayern.
The top betting sites for Arabs pushed Pep Guardiola’s side out to 3.25 after they were drawn against one of the bets teams left in the competition.
City swept past RB Leipzig in the previous round, with Erling Braut Haaland’s five-goal haul in the second leg leaving the German side shellshocked.
However, Bayern will undoubtedly provide much sterner opposition given how they have been performing in the Champions League this season.
Bayern won six out of six in the group stage, before triumphing home and away against Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16.
If City safely navigate their way past Bayern, they will meet the winners of the Real Madrid vs Chelsea tie in the semi-finals.
Los Blancos humiliated Liverpool in the last round and it would be a brave move backing against them winning this competition for a record 15th time.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti knows what it takes to win the Champions League and he is certain to have his players well-prepared for the clash with Chelsea.
The Blues have endured an underwhelming campaign in the Premier League, but stepped things up to edge out Borussia Dortmund in the last-16.
If they can keep things tight in the first leg, Graham Potter’s side are more than capable of upsetting the odds in the return fixture at Stamford Bridge.
The other half of the draw is dominated by Serie A teams, with Napoli, AC Milan and Inter Milan all booking their places in the quarter-finals.
Napoli are the pick of the bunch and should have little difficulty sweeping Milan aside to make it through to the last four.
Gli Azzurri have established a 19-point lead at the top of Serie A and have been in stellar form during their Champions League campaign.
The winners of the Napoli vs Milan tie will face either Inter or Benfica in the semi-finals and predicting the winner of that match-up is no easy task.
Inter eliminated Porto in the previous round, but will likely find things tougher against a Benfica side that is dominating the Portuguese league this season.
Benfica hammered Club Brugge in the last-16 and could possess too much firepower for Inter in their quarter-final tie.
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