Champions League draw: Real Madrid and Barcelona kept apart

Spanish giants kept apart in quarter-final draw

Simon Rice
Friday 15 March 2013 12:23 GMT
Comments

The draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League have taken place, with the three favourites to lift the trophy kept apart.

Real Madrid, who beat Manchester United to advance to the last eight, will face Turkish side Galatasaray. The match will see Jose Mourinho, the manager of the nine-times champions, come up against former players Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder, who he coached at Chelsea and Inter Milan respectively.

Meanwhile Barcelona, who made a stunning comeback against AC Milan in the last round, will fancy their chances against David Beckham's Paris St Germain. Former striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be the French side's main threat.

The other standout team in the last eight, Bayern Munich, will play Italian giants Juventus. The German league leaders beat Arsenal in the last round, but were somewhat fortuitous to progress, only advancing on away goals. It promises to be a tough assignment against the Serie A side that knocked out Celtic with ease.

The final fixture will see Malaga take on reigning Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund for a place in the semi-final.

This year's final takes place at Wembley with the dream scenario for neutrals being an El Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona being played out under the arch of the national stadium. Today's draw means that remains a possibility.

Unlike in previous seasons, Uefa did not also make the draw for the semi-final pairings at the same time - that will now take place next month.

Steve McManaman, the former Liverpool and Real midfielder who carried out the draw for UEFA, said: "Real have had to do it the hard way so far - they have beaten a lot of good teams."

Champions League draw...

Malaga v Borussia Dortmund

Real Madrid v Galatasaray

PSG v Barcelona

Bayern Munich v Juventus

The matches will take place on 2nd/3rd April (1st Leg) and 9th/10th April (2nd Leg)

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in