Madrid, Bayern, City and Milan and their obligations in the Champions League to save the season from failure

While the Real Madrid board of directors is playing a classic of accusations with Barcelona for the Negreira Case –alleged purchase of referees to favor the Catalans– and for who was more or less favored in history, the white team led by Carlo Ancelotti Europe has to look at defending the shield from any insinuation and what better than advancing towards a new title.

From 2 pm he visits Chelsea (live on ESPN) in search of completing his passport to the semifinals. He already won 2-0 in the first leg in Madrid and now he is looking to complete the task with the statistics on his side: of the 15 times he has achieved a two-goal advantage, in 12 he advanced to the round. They only traced the Grasshopper in 1978, Hamburg in 1980 and the last was Monaco, in 2004. If Real knows one thing, it is to maintain results.

“Because of the history of this club, it is the king of the Champions League,” says Ancelotti, making it clear from the beginning that not only is the ball played, but also with the heads.

Chelsea’s miracle is winning by three goals difference, but they arrive with a streak of six games without winning, in which only in two games were they able to score at least one goal.

Different realities for both. Real Madrid is a candidate for the Champions League and has the Copa del Rey final as second prize, while Chelsea has zero titles and will not qualify for the next Champions League unless they win the current edition. He is bound to come back.

—History in Italy—

Pure history will be written at the Diego Maradona stadium. Napoli does not want to consider themselves well served by having reached the quarterfinals for the first time and is aiming for more, but to do so they must overcome the 1-0 loss they suffered in the first leg against AC Milan. The southerners will have their scorer Victor Osimhem –25 goals in 29 games– to fulfill that task.

The sky-blue team is virtually Serie A champion, an achievement that they will complete after 30 years, but they want to conquer Europe and not allow a sleeping giant like Milan to wake up.

—What’s coming—

It is the closing season and each club seeks to end it in the best way. The only club aiming to win a treble is Manchester City, as they are fighting for the Premier, are in the FA Cup semifinals and have a clear advantage over Bayern (3-0) to think of the semifinals. Tomorrow they will have to stamp that ticket to avoid a historical paper of wasting a tremendous advantage.

Meanwhile, in the duel between Inter and Benfica, for both reaching the semifinals is pure gain. The Italians have a 2-0 advantage to break the 23-year wait without getting into the top four, the Portuguese have not done so since 1990. Whoever gets it will celebrate in style.

It’s the Champions League and for 90 minutes the world will be watching what happens in Europe. The semifinalists are defined, the step prior to the glory of winning the Champions League.

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