There will be no all Premier League Champions League 2024 Final at Wembley on Saturday 1st June following the draw for the Quarter & Semi Finals which dictated Manchester City would play Arsenal in the last four if the English sides overcome Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in their respective mouth-watering last eight ties next month.
The last time the Final was staged at Wembley back in 2013 it was an all-Bundesliga affair with Bayern Munich edging out Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund 2-1. If you believe history will repeat itself kwiff are 48.0 that the two German giants lock horns again in the Champions League Final eleven years on.
There is still the prospect of a second all-Madrid Final (El Derbi Madrileño) between Real & Atleti while many football supporters across the globe will be entertaining the prospect of a first El Clasico Champions League Final between Real Madrid & Barcelona which is priced at X with Kwiff.com.
The resurgence of Barcelona
The best Champions League winners since the turn of the century, in my opinion, have been the Barcelona side who beat Manchester United 2-0 in Rome in 2009 and then wiped the floor with the same outstanding PL opposition at Wembley 3-1 two years later.
Barcelona were coached on both occasions by Josep (Pep) Guardiola but the Spanish legend is now very much in the corner of Champions League holders Manchester City. I think the UEFA showpiece will be contested by Pep’s clubs past and present with City edging out a resurgent and progressive Barcelona managed, until the end of the current season, by Xavi Hernandez who was such a pivotal midfield cog in the great Guardiola side of 2009 & 2011.
Xavi made the decision to step down in the summer at the end of January at a time when the club were in turmoil. Plagued by injuries to key players, they suffered a heavy 5-3 home defeat to Villareal that left them ten points behind leaders Real Madrid. That loss came on the back of a 4-1 Spanish Super Cup defeat to Los Blancos while they were also knocked out of the Copa del Rey 4-2 at Athletic Bilbao.
Champions League Outright prices from kwiff
Manchester City 2.50
Arsenal 5.0
Real Madrid 6.0
Bayern Munich 6.70
PSG 7.65
Barcelona 9.35
Atletico Madrid 10.90
Dortmund 20.90
Fast forward two months and five-time Champions League winners Barca are unbeaten in their last ten games and leapfrogged Atleti into second place in the La Liga table with an impressive 3-0 win at the Metropolitano last weekend: the hosts first home defeat of the campaign.
Barcelona travel to France to meet PSG in the first leg of their quarter-final and the sides know each other very well. Barca have historically had the edge, but a Kyllian Mbappe hat-trick at the Camp Nou was the difference between the two sides when they last met in the round of sixteen back in 2021.
Barca Wembley Bound
Gavi is out for the season, but Pedri and Frankie de Jong should be back next month although the former is likely to miss the first leg in the Parc des Princes. Barca’s defence, so leaky back in January, have conceded just once in their last five games with young centre back Pau Cubarsi a revelation in the last six weeks. Indeed, Cubarsi has drawn favourable comparisons recently with club legend Gerad Pique by many in and around the club.
At the time of writing, it seems inevitable that Cubarsi will make his international debut for Spain against either Colombia or Brazil in their two forthcoming international friendlies.
Barca will not retain their La Liga title which will head back to the Bernabeu, but I expect them to beat Paris in the last eight before confirming recent form with Atletico – who will surely be too good for a limited Dortmund side – in the last four.
Manchester City remain the team to beat
In recent years Wembley has been like a second home to Champions League holders Manchester City and the Citizens are guaranteed at least one more trip to the capital this spring in the semi-final of the FA Cup against Chelsea next month.
City face Real Madrid for the third successive season in the Champions League and are taken to confirm last season’s semi-final success when they were far too good for Carlo Ancelotti’s Los Blancos – albeit one without the considerable talents of Jude Bellingham.
I would indeed argue that the Premier League side should have won their semi-final of 2021/22 given they went into the 90th minute at the Bernabeu with a two-goal lead only to concede two late goals. A Karim Benzema penalty in extra-time sealed Real’s unlikely but, seemingly, inevitable 6-5 aggregate success after the Whites had previously come from behind to beat PSG in the last sixteen and Chelsea, after extra time, in the quarter final.
Bayern will travel to the Emirates next month without any away support given UEFA issued a ban on Bayern fans attending the quarter-final away leg after their supporters threw fireworks onto the pitch in their 3-1 win against Lazio in Rome in the previous round.
Hotting up: Champions League 2024
The first leg will see the return of England and former Spurs skipper Harry Kane to London. Kane has 31 Bundesliga goals so far this season and scored fourteen times in 19 north London derbies for Spurs against the Gunners. I wonder if Kane will be the difference between the two sides.
Bayern are currently ten points behind runaway leaders Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga while Arsenal top the Premier League table. Tuchel, like Xavi, has said he will be off in the summer leaving the job vacant for Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp perhaps although the Bayern board, like the Anfield executive, are huge admirers of Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso.
Bayern boast a formidable European pedigree and, with the second leg in Bavaria, I can see the German champions having too much for Mikel Arteta’s side. Yes, the lack of away support will hurt Bayern, but I was underwhelmed with the Gunners in both legs against Porto in the last sixteen and think it will be Hat’s Off To Harry in Munich.
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