After the end of the round of 16, the Champions League 2021-22 season witnessed the dominance of the two football regions of England and Spain in the quarter-finals, with each country having 3 representatives. The remaining 2 teams are from Germany and Portugal.
With such a large number, the probability of having domestic matches between teams from the same country is not small. However, somehow, the draw results created a great war between England and Spain. After the first leg, the risk of each country losing 1 representative is approaching.
Real Madrid meet Chelsea again - the defending champions and also the team that eliminated them in the semi-finals last season. The away trip to London turned all predictions upside down, with Karim Benzema and his teammates winning 3-1. The French striker's hat-trick made the English realize that their Chelsea no longer maintained the surprise of the time when Thomas Tuchel first arrived and changed their image.
Now, The Blues have to travel to Madrid with the mission of winning by 3 goals to make a comeback. But for now, Chelsea fans are only "temporarily" dreaming and hoping for a 2-goal gap to at least get to the extra half. The German coach frankly admitted that Chelsea could not have come back if they had played like the first leg, but of course, they did not go to Madrid to give the opponent a shot.
When people say nothing can be predicted, Chelsea will fight, but most are prepared for the death of the King. It will be very interesting for Chelsea to win the Iberia peninsula (porto, Portugal) and will also "go all the way" here (Madrid, Spain).
This week, Madrid authorities have turned on a security warning as England fans cheer for their team. After Chelsea, it was Manchester City fans' turn in just 24 hours. There is a possibility of unexpected incidents when famous English fans are easily a problem.
Unlike Chelsea, Man City came to Atletico Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano Stadium with the task of defending the 1-0 win in the first leg. Saying "defense", in fact, experts are waiting to see how coach Diego Simeone will play the decisive card with Pep Guardiola.
At the Etihad, Atletico deployed a 5-5-0 formation. Many people laughed and criticized Simeone, but clearly, in that situation, Simeone cannot be called a coward or an anti-football player. Man City is rated higher in every aspect as Atletico themselves have weakened a lot compared to when they reached the final twice in 3 years.
At the moment, the concern is what Simeone will do when Atletico are forced to attack? Guardiola was "teasing" with a joking sentence: "If they still play like the first leg, we will pass it back and forth until the end of the match"...
With England and Spain likely to lose a representative in both matches, there will definitely be another England - Spain semi-final according to the available branch. The question is can they complete the remaining branch? To answer this question, we must turn to Villarreal, because Liverpool have completed 50% of their tasks after the 3-1 victory at Benfica. Villarreal need to keep the 1-0 advantage over Bayern Munich in the first leg.
The truth is that no one believed Villarreal could make such a surprise, when their position and the Bavarians were so different. But, again, predicting is easy to avoid. What the golden Submarine will do at the Allianz-Arena that Bayern cannot "know", only coach Unai Emery will know. It is known that he changed the entire starting lineup in the first leg when returning to La Liga last weekend. Of course, Bayern are very scary at home, but Villarreal is a mystery...
