Accrued yellow cards no longer valid in semis

Jérôme Boateng, Philipp Lahm, Manuel Neuer and Juan Bernat can breathe sighs of relief: the quartet have all seen two yellow cards in the Champions League this term but need no longer fear being suspended for the second semi-final match or a possible final should they collect another booking. Effective from this season, European governing body UEFA has ruled that yellow cards accrued will be wiped out after the quarter-final stage. The idea is to prevent players missing the final due to automatic yellow-card bans, a fate that befell Xabi Alonso last term when he was still with Real Madrid.

Robben and Benatia on the ball

There has been a slight improvement in the injury situation at FC Bayern. Arjen Robben (torn stomach muscles) and Mehdi Benatia (hamstring) were still restricted to solo training on Wednesday, but each man at least had the ball at his feet. Franck Ribéry (ankle) worked out in the performance center, along with David Alaba (knee ligaments) and Tom Starke (ankle ligaments).