Key events
Some news: José Emilio Santamaría, a four-time European Cup winner with Real Madrid, died earlier today at the age of 96. The Uruguay international joined Madrid in 1957 and went on to lift one Intercontinental Cup, six La Liga titles and one Spanish Cup, making 337 appearances over nine seasons.
“Santamaria will always be remembered as one of the great symbols of our club. He was part of a team that will remain in the memory of all madridistas and football fans worldwide,” Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said in a statement.
Santamaria played 25 times for Uruguay and also represented Spain on 16 occasions. He featured for Uruguay at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland and later appeared for Spain at the 1962 World Cup in Chile.
After his playing career, he managed Spain’s Olympic team at the 1968 Mexico City Games and the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He was also Spain’s coach at the 1982 World Cup on home soil and spent seven seasons in charge of Espanyol, overseeing 252 matches. Reuters
You can now probably add last week’s first leg to this list.
As mentioned, it was a contrasting weekend for both sides, both of whom were much changed. Real Madrid extended their winless run to three games in all competitions to help Barcelona to the verge of the La Liga title, while Bayern crushed St Pauli 5-0 in the Bundesliga to set an all-time season scoring record while also extending their lead at the top to 12 points with five games left to play.
Team news!
Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1): Neuer; Stanisic, Upamecano, Tah, Laimer; Kimmich, Pavlovic; Olise, Gnabry, Díaz; Kane.
Subs: Prescott, Kim Min-jae, Urbig, Goretzka, Musiala, Jackson, Davies, Ito, Guerreiro.
Real Madrid (4-4-2, possibly shifting to a 4-3-3): Lunin; Alexander-Arnold, Rüdiger, Militão, Mendy; Arda Güler, Valverde, Bellingham, Brahim; Mbappé, Viní.
Subs: Fran Gonzalez, Javi Navarro, Carvajal, Alaba, Camavinga, Gonzalo, Carreras, Ceballos, Fran Garcia, Huijsen, Mastantuono, Thiago.
It’s the same Bayern XI that started last week at the Bernabéu. Tom Bischof has suffered a small muscle fiber tear in his left calf so he is out of Kompany’s squad.
Álvaro Arbeloa has fielded an unbelievably attacking starting XI. Remember, Aurélien Tchouaméni is suspended but Camavinga is left on the bench in favour of Brahim Díaz. After being rested for the 1-1 draw against Girona at the weekend, Trent Alexander-Arnold starts at right back and Mendy is preferred at left back to Fran García and Álvaro Carreras.
Preamble
It doesn’t get a lot bigger or better than this. The outright favourites this season (Bayern) against the most successful European side of all time (Real). A mouthwatering quarter-final between two gigantic behemoths to see who will face the reigning champions (PSG) in the semi-final. Double woof.
The quarter-finals might just be the best part of the Champions League – close enough to the final to get excited of glory but far enough from the tournament climax to still have any number of unknowns and permutations, the games come thick and fast (you can also follow Arsenal v Sporting tonight right here) and there is just a solitary goal separating Bayern and Real Madrid in this tie, with the Germans earning a 2-1 first-leg victory last week at the Bernabéu. Yes, it was a stunning result for Vincent Kompany’s side but Bayern might be frustrated their advantage is not bigger. One thing is for sure, you never, ever count out Real Madrid in this competition.
There is even an English angle on the most continental of evenings, with Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold all hoping to make their mark on the biggest of stages – the Bayern striker has never won Europe’s biggest prize while Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold will want to deliver timely reminders about their England credentials.
Bellingham was asked on Tuesday about Kane’s chances of winning the Ballon d’Or:
It seems like they’re going to win the Bundesliga, which obviously hurts me considering my brother is at Dortmund, and I was a player there,” Bellingham replied. “Again, it depends on what he does with England, and hopefully, we can try and stop them from winning the Champions League tomorrow, which will obviously have a big effect.
He’s a sensational player. It’s a pleasure to play with him with the national team. I think he’s amazing. He’s showing everyone the last two or three years he’s reached a level where he’s almost perfected his craft in terms of what he can do as a striker.”
It’s going to be quite the show at the Allianz Arena.
Kick-off: 8pm BST.
