Reigning champions Chelsea will face Real Madrid in the quarterfinal of the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League, a rematch of last season’s semifinal, which the Blues won 3-1 on aggregate.
There will be reunions; Eden Hazard and Carlo Ancelotti will be celebrated on their return to Stamford Bridge, should UEFA allow fans to take their place in the stands, given their historic ties with the club, while Mateo Kovacic will return to Santiago Bernabeu for the first time since 2018.
One of Chelsea or Real Madrid will progress to face either Manchester City or Atletico Madrid – the two teams with significantly different playing styles have drawn each other in the last eight. Both the Citizens and Atleti were beaten by the eventual winners Chelsea in last year’s tournament but, with three rounds to go, will fancy their chances of going all the way this time around.
On the other side of the draw, Bayern Munich will play Villarreal over two legs for a place in the semifinals. The Bundesliga champions booked their place in the quarterfinal with a heavy 7-2 win over RB Salzburg, while Villarreal registered one of the shocks of the competition by beating Juventus 4-1 on aggregate with three of their four goals coming in the last 15 minutes of the second leg.
The winner of the aforementioned tie will face either Liverpool or Benfica in the second semifinal. Champions in 2018/19, Liverpool scraped past Inter Milan to book their place in the quarterfinals – a task made easy by Alexis Sanchez’s untimely red card in the second leg, barely minutes after Inter had cut the deficit down to one.
Meanwhile, SL Benfica beat Ajax in their Round-of-16 tie 3-2 on aggregate; the Portuguese outfit had Darwin Nunez to thank for scoring a late winner in the second leg after they had rescued a 2-2 draw in the first.
The final, this year, will be played on May 28 in Stade de France. Originally scheduled to be played in Saint Petersburg, UEFA decided to shift the game to Paris following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
