UEFA Champions League 2019 quarter-final starts tomorrow, ONA reports.
Two matches will be played tomorrow. Tottenham will host Manchester City in the first leg, which could be played at Wembley Stadium or at the north London club’s soon-to-be-completed new arena. The pairing also brought together the only two teams in the draw who have never been European champion. This season seems like City’s best chance to become European champion since being taken over by its Abu Dhabi owners in 2008. No longer Champions League novices, City is in the quarterfinals for the third time in four years.The depth in Pep Guardiola’s squad is fueling a challenge for an unprecedented quadruple of trophies, having already won the English League Cup. City has benefited from benign draws, with Schalke shaping up as the weakest round of 16 option. City won 10-2 over two legs.
Liverpool will face Porto, a team the five-time champions beat in the last 16 last season. Back then, Liverpool won 5-0 in Portugal to start its route to the final.Porto is, perhaps, the team everyone else in the draw wants to face. Coached by former player Sergio Conceicao, Porto is looking to go beyond the quarterfinals for the first time since 2004 when Jose Mourinho led the team to its second title. A finalist last season and now in the quarterfinals again, Liverpool is back at Europe’s top table.The mature way the five-time European champions dealt with Bayern Munich in their 3-1 away win in the last 16 showed how far they have come under Juergen Klopp over the past two years.It was fitting that a goal by Virgil van Dijk proved to be key in Munich, with the arrival of the centre back for $99 million in January 2018 shoring up a defence that had been shaky in Klopp’s first two years in charge. Liverpool also now has a world-class goalkeeper in Brazil international Alisson Becker. Few will relish going to Anfield in the last eight. Just ask Manchester City, which was swept aside 3-0 in the first leg last year to virtually end its Champions League ambitions.
Champions League
1/4 final, first leg
April 9
23:00. “Liverpool” (England) – “Porto” (Portugal)
Refree: Antonio Migel Mateu Lanos (Spain)
Liverpool. “Anfild Road” stadium
23:00. “Tottenham” (England) – “Manchester City” (England)
Refree: Byorn Kuypers (Netherland)
London. “Tottenham Hotspur” stadium
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