Champions League quarter-final draw: Arsenal and Manchester City handed nightmare route to final

The draw for the latter stages took place in Switzerland on Friday morning (Picture: Getty)

Arsenal have been handed a very difficult route to the Champions League final after landing Bayern Munich in the quarters, while reigning champions Manchester City take on Real Madrid.

The Gunners progressed to the last eight of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time since 2009/10 after overcoming a stubborn Porto side in midweek courtesy of a penalty shootout win.

Porto are only third in the Portuguese league table, some way adrift of Sporting and Benfica in the title race, and significantly tougher tests were waiting ahead of Friday’s draw at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

At this stage of the draw, no teams are seeded and there is no country protection – meaning clubs from the same league can be drawn against each other.

While Arsenal were toiling against Porto, Manchester City dispatched Copenhagen with relative ease and now take on Real Madrid – with the winner of that tie then taking on either Arsenal or Bayern in the semi-final.

Bayern were given a brief scare in their showdown with Lazio but rallied in the second leg, and the meeting with Arsenal sees Harry Kane go up against his old north London rivals.

Incredibly, the former Tottenham talisman has 14 goals and three assists in 19 appearances against Arsenal.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, gave a rather subdued performance against RB Leipzig in the last 16 and were a little fortunate not to be dragged to extra-time, though the likes of Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham will pose significant threats to City.

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Atletico Madrid overturned a first-leg deficit to beat Inter Milan, coming through on penalties after a brilliantly entertaining match at the Metropolitano Stadium, and now take on Borussia Dortmund – who were a tad fortunate against PSV.

Barcelona saw off Napoli and now face a mouth-watering showdown with Paris Saint-Germain – who put Real Sociedad to the sword – in what is something of a rerun of their incredible 6-5 victory in 2017.

In addition to the quarter-final draw, the semi-final draw also took place on Friday – with teams now knowing their route to the final at Wembley – while the final draw has determined which team will be designated as the ‘home’ team for the showpiece.

The semi-final draw means that, if Arsenal overcome Bayern Munich in the quarter-final, they will then face Real Madrid or Manchester City in the semi-finals in what is an incredibly stacked half of the draw.

Just to make life even harder for the Gunners, they will be at home in the first leg of both rounds, meaning they will need to produce big performances in the second legs at the Allianz Arena and then either the Etihad or the Bernabeu in order to reach the final at Wembley.

When do the matches take place?

Quarter-finals: First legs on 9/10 April, second legs on 16/17 April

Semi-finals: First legs on 30 April/1 May, second legs on 7/8 May

Final: Saturday 1 June, Wembley Stadium

UEFA will communicate which days – either Tuesday or Wednesday – the quarter-finals will be played on by 5pm GMT at the latest, though the exact dates for the semi-finals will not be communicated until 18 April after the conclusion of the ties.

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