CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, APPROACHING THE DRAW: POSSIBLE OPPONENTS

Seven possible opponents to continue an already important European run, one that has brought AC Milan back among the top eight teams in Europe. Two English, one representative each from Germany, Portugal and Spain and, finally, another two Italian teams. Stefano Pioli's Rossoneri are waiting to find out, from the Nyon ballot box, their opponent for the Champions League quarter-finals to be played in mid-April. We approach the ceremony tomorrow, Friday 17 March at 12:00 CET, with an in-depth look at the possible opponents of our European fate.

MANCHESTER CITY
Guardiola's Citizens secured their place in Europe's top eight thanks to a commanding victory in the second leg against Leipzig: a 7-0 win that will go into the history books for the five goals scored by Erling Haaland, the top scorer in this Champions League with 10 goals. The best way to forget the difficulties from the first leg in Germany, which ended 1-1, and follow in the wake of a good group stage with 14 points collected against Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla and Copenhagen. The meeting with the English champions would be a first in the European top flight, as their only previous meeting with AC Milan was in the round of 16 of the 1978/79 UEFA Cup (2-2 in Milan, 3-0 in Manchester).

CHELSEA
The Blues are the other English team in the draw and, unlike the aforementioned Manchester City, their last Rossoneri memory is a decidedly recent one. The two sides have already met in the group stage of this year's competition, with two victories (3-0 in London, 2-0 in Milan) for Potter's boys, who eliminated Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 with a 2-0 Stamford Bridge win to overturn a 1-0 defeat in Germany. Before last October, the two teams had also met in the group stage of the 1999/2000 edition, with two draws of 0-0 and 1-1. There is a distant previous meeting - the round of 16 of the 1965/66 Fairs Cup - in a knockout showdown, with a 2-1 home win each and a 1-1 draw in the San Siro play-off that saw Liedholm's Rossoneri go out on a coin toss.

REAL MADRID
The only representatives from the Spanish league, reigning champions Real Madrid undoubtedly represent the noblest of challenges to emerge from the Nyon draw. The match against Ancelotti's team would be the most successful meeting in the history of the competition and, at the same time, a challenge that has not been played in a knockout stage for a long time. The last three previous meeting with Real, in fact, occurred in the group stage, with the most recent being in the 2010/11 season. In total, the balance in the competition between AC Milan and Real Madrid is in absolute equilibrium, with six wins each and three draws. The Spaniards qualified for the quarter-finals after beating Leipzig, Shakthar and Celtic in Group F (with 13 points) and eliminating Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool in a pyrotechnic round of 16.

INTER
Simone Inzaghi's team, like AC Milan, also returned to the top eight in Europe after more than a decade (12 years, to be precise). The Nerazzurri qualified for the quarter-finals after eliminating Barcelona and Viktoria Plzeň in Group C - finishing 2nd with 10 points - and Porto in the round of 16, with an aggregate score of 1-0. A Milan derby in European competition would be nothing new, with the 2002/03 semi-final and the 2004/05 quarter-final representing two sweet memories in Rossoneri history. The third derby, moreover, would match in number the six matches already played, in the Champions League era, between Real and Atlético Madrid, the city derby with the most previous occurrences in the history of the competition.

NAPOLI
It would be an absolute first in the European competition, on the other hand, a potential meeting with Luciano Spalletti's team, for the first time in its history in the Champions League quarter-finals and never, until now, the opponent of another Italian team in the continent's top competition. There are several points in common between Napoli's European and domestic performance: after an excellent group, with 15 points and finishing ahead of Liverpool, Ajax and Rangers, the Neapolitans got the better of Eintracht Frankfurt, winners of the last Europa League, in the Round of 16 with an aggregate score of 5-0. Napoli and AC Milan, by the way, will also play each other in April in the league, with the match on Sunday 2 April at the Stadio Maradona possibly preceding an unprecedented European double.

BAYERN MUNICH
We close this review with two teams that we have already faced in the quarter-finals, in the Champions League era. The closest in time is Bayern Munich, who were overcome in 2006/07 with a 2-2 draw at the San Siro that was followed by a memorable 2-0 win at the Allianz Arena. Nagelsmann's Germans have been stopped at this stage of the competition in the last two seasons - PSG in 2020/21 and Villarreal in the most recent - but they arrive at the quarter-finals on the strength of a 100% win rate in their first eight matches played. After a perfect group stage, conceding only two goals, Bayern got the better of Paris Saint-Germain in the previous round, winning 1-0 in France and 2-0 at home. The last time, before this year, that Bayern qualified in the top eight with a run of only wins they went on to win the Champions League, in the 2019/20 season.

BENFICA
The quarter-final between AC Milan and Benfica dates back to 1994/95: a precedent that favoured the Rossoneri, who got the better of the Lusitanians with a 2-0 aggregate on their way to the final, which they then lost to Ajax. It was in the 2007/08 group stage, on the other hand, that AC Milan last met the Lisbon team, against whom they won the European Cup twice, in 1963 and 1990. In Group D, Ancelotti's Rossoneri won 2-1 at San Siro (Pirlo and Inzaghi scored) and drew 1-1 in Portugal. Benfica have already faced an Italian side, Juventus, this season, winning both matches (2-1 in Italy, 4-3 in Portugal) in a group that they topped, ahead of PSG, with 14 points. In the Round of 16, Roger Schmidt's team then overcame Belgium's Club Bruges, winning both matches 2-0 (away) and 5-1.

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