Real Madrid are through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League this season. In the Round of 16, they faced Liverpool. The first leg was at Anfield in which Los Blancos stunned the Reds with a 2-5 victory. Both Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior hit braces in the first leg.
After the first leg, the Reds were hopeful of getting making a comeback. A few years ago they made a stunning comeback against Barcelona by winning 4-0. They were hopeful of making a similar comeback against Real Madrid as well.
However, Los Blancos at Santiago Bernabeu proved to be a different gravy. In the second leg, Liverpool faced to even get a goal. To confirm, Real Madrid’s ticket to the quarter-finals Karim Benzema scored a 78th-minute goal as well. The goal proved to be a dagger in Liverpool’s heart.
With this win, Real Madrid are again hopeful of succeeding fully in defending the Champions League trophy as well. Since it was the second week of the Round of 16 clash other teams have also qualified for the quarter-finals. Thus it will be interesting to see who will Los Blancos face in the next round.
Real Madrid opponents for Champions League quarter-finals
Last to last week Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Benfica, and AC Milan secured their positions in the next round. While this week alongside Real Madrid, Manchester City, Inter Milan, and Napoli also secured their places in the quarter-finals.
Chelsea was the only team to qualify despite losing the first leg. They defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at Stamford Bridge after losing 1-0 away from home in Germany. While the Bavarians were victorious over both legs against Paris Saint Germain.
Benfica and Manchester City won by huge margins against Club Brugge and RB Leipzig. Italian giants AC Milan and Inter Milan held strong ground to win on aggregate by 1-0 against Tottenham Hotspur and Porto respectively.
All these teams would prefer that they don’t face Real Madrid, considering their record in the tournament. The draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the season 2022-23 will take place on 17th March 2023 in Nyon, Switzerland at 4:30 PM (IST).
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Real Madrid’s record against potential quarter-finals opponents
Los Blancos are evenly matched against Chelsea. In 2021, they lost to Blues over the two legs but last year they triumphed over them. Manchester City have never managed to get the better of Real Madrid over two legs in recent times.
As for the Italian side, it is after a very long time they have reached this stage. In 2010/11 was the last time Real Madrid faced AC Milan, one game was drawn and another resulted in Los Blancos’ victory. Inter Milan and Los Blancos recently faced each other four times. Los Blancos were victorious in all four of them.
Napoli and Real Madrid faced each other only once two times in the 2016/17 season. Los Blancos won both games. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have produced some memorable games in recent times. However, there no pleasant memories for the Germans in recent times against the Spanish giants.
As for Benfica, Los Blancos haven’t faced them since 1964/65. Thus on paper, Chelsea appears to be the strongest candidate that Real Madrid could face, based on the previous record. However, other teams are also capable of giving tough competition to the Spanish giants.
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