Top Managers and Dark Horses Clash in Champions League Quarter-Finals
This week, the quarterfinal first legs of the Champions League begin, pitting the final eight teams against one another.
Italy has more teams remaining than any other nation, and Benfica has also advanced to the quarterfinals, which is a departure from recent years.
How might Chelsea and Manchester City, the remaining representatives from the Premier League, perform?
Manchester City versus Bayern Munich – Guardiola versus Tuchel once more
Guardiola faces his former club for the first time since leaving Bayern Munich in 2016 to join Manchester City.
Guardiola was expecting to face a Julian Nagelsmann team again (having defeated his Hoffenheim twice in 2018-19), but the German club recently fired Nagelsmann and replaced him with Thomas Tuchel, a name Guardiola is even more familiar with.
Throughout a decade-long rivalry, the managers have met ten times, with Guardiola claiming six victories and Tuchel three. All of these victories will occur between 17 April and 29 May 2021, a span of six weeks.
This streak, which included Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final and Champions League final victories over City, gave the impression that Tuchel was superior to Guardiola. Guardiola famously did not play a defensive midfielder in that championship game as a failed tactical gamble.
However, City defeated Tuchel’s Chelsea twice in the Premier League last season, and with four wins and a draw in Germany, including the 2016 DFB-Pokal final, Guardiola’s record is significantly superior.
Guardiola’s record against his former clubs has been mixed. Since leaving, he has faced Barcelona four times, twice with City and twice with Bayern. He won two of these matches but lost the remaining two by scores of 3-0 and 4-0.
Lampard vs. Real Madrid: Can he pull a Tuchel?
Frank Lampard will begin the 2020-21 season as Chelsea’s manager, while Thomas Tuchel will lead the club to Champions League glory.
Chelsea’s 2022-23 campaign will begin with Tuchel in charge and conclude with Lampard hoping to lead the club to Champions League glory.
Lampard is the fourth manager of Chelsea this season, following the dismissals of Tuchel, Graham Potter, and Bruno Saltor.
He hopes to continue an unusual club tradition by winning a European trophy in his first season in charge, despite this being his second stint in charge.
Even accounting for Chelsea’s propensity to switch managers, their last five European championships have all been won by managers who took over that season.
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Four of the five occurred during the holiday season, while three occurred after Christmas.
Bruno had a brief chance to join Potter last week after he was fired. Bruno was in charge until the season ended.
In 2022, Tuchel succeeded Potter as Champions League manager. The Germans assumed control in January.
In his only season as Chelsea manager, Italian Maurizio Sarri won the 2019 Europa League.
Rafael Benitez, a former Liverpool manager, led Chelsea to the 2013 Europa League as interim manager beginning in November.
Roberto di Matteo had been their interim manager for less than three months prior to winning the Champions League in 2012.
Chelsea won the 2008 European Cup Winners’ Cup under player-manager Gianluca Vialli.
Dave Sexton is the only Chelsea manager to win the 1971 Cup Winners’ Cup more than a year into his tenure.
Can Lampard, who won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2011-12, be added to that list?
Real Madrid, the kings of Europe, stand in their way in the quarterfinals, but Chelsea has a strong record against them, having lost only once in seven meetings.
This is the lowest percentage of defeats against Real (14%) among teams that have faced them at least five times in Europe.
AC Milan v Napoli – can Kvaratskhelia keep the amazing season going?
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is an extraordinary throwback that seemed impossible in contemporary football.
Prior to nine months ago, the average football fan would not have even known his name, as Kvaratskhelia only played in the Georgian and Russian leagues, in addition to two Europa Conference League appearances.
Now, the Georgian winger is a bona fide superstar and one of the best players on one of the best football teams in Europe, the Serie A leader Napoli.
Kvaratskhelia has scored 12 goals in Serie A, trailing only four players, and provided 10 assists, more than anyone else.
Messi and Neymar of PSG, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Randal Kolo Muani, and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka are the only other players in Europe’s top five leagues with double-digit totals for goals and assists.
Nobody in the Champions League has more assists than Kvaratskhelia’s four.
Kvaratskhelia and Napoli have a favorable quarterfinal matchup against AC Milan, who are 22 points behind them in the standings. However, Milan defeated them by a score of 4-0 earlier this month.
Inter Milan versus Benfica: Can Schmidt’s squad be stopped?
This season, Benfica sold over £200 million worth of talent, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at this squad.
First, the star striker Darwin Nunez was sold to Liverpool for between £64 million and £85 million, and then the midfielder Enzo Fernandez was sold to Chelsea for £107 million. This season, more than thirty other players have left the club.
Nevertheless, under the management of German journeyman Roger Schmidt, they appear nearly unbeatable.
They have only lost twice in 46 games in all competitions since appointing the former PSV manager in the summer, with one of those defeats coming on Friday against Porto at home.
Benfica finished first in a Champions League group with PSG and Juventus, collecting 13 more points than the Italians, before annihilating Club Bruges in the round of 16 and costing Scott Parker his job.
They lead the Portuguese league by seven points over Porto and are closing in on their first trophy since 2019.
Only Italian teams stand between them and return to the European Cup final for the first time since 1990. The winner of their match against Inter will face either AC Milan or Napoli in the semi-finals.
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