Title holders Real Madrid, Liverpool, with their mercurial coach Jürgen Klopp, and surprise semi-finalists Roma join FC Bayern in the round of the four best teams in Europe at Friday's draw in Nyon. The CL Final ambassador Andriy Shevchenko will draw the UEFA Champions League semi-final pairings at 13.00 CET. The first leg matches will be played on 24/25 April with the return games held a week later.
No easy opponents
"All three possible opponents are top class teams," said coach Jupp Heynckes after FCB progressed to the semi-finals against Sevilla and he did not want to name a preferred opponent. "No, no coach has that luxury as it rarely goes to plan." The 72-year-old is justified in his assessment given the, in part, surprising results from the quarter-finals: Roma turned round a 4-1 defeat from the first leg against favourites Barcelona, Liverpool overcame the star-studded Manchester City side and Real Madrid, with a 3-0 win in the first leg, went through due to a last-minute penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo in the 3-1 defeat at home to Juventus. "The results in the quarter-finals were crazy," declared Thomas Müller and he views all four teams in the semi-finals as equals. "There are no favourites in the last four of the Champions League." FC Bayern are happy not to have slipped up in two tricky quarter-final matches against supposed outsiders Sevilla. "We can be proud of our team and we fully deserved to go through to the semi-finals," said FCB president Uli Hoeneß. There is no easy draw for him on Friday. "There are no opponents you can say are easy to beat," said the 66-year-old who has one wish for the semi-finals: "I'd just like to go through to the final."
„"There are no opponents you can say are easy to beat."”
Uli Hoeneß
“We’ll take it as it comes,” said Hasan Salihamidzic adopting a relaxed approach to the draw. “The four best teams in Europe are in the semi-finals. It doesn’t matter who we play,” added the FCB sporting director. Whatever the draw, Bayern are definitely ready to take the next step towards the final in Kiev on 26 May. “If you want to win it then you have to beat two of the three teams,” said Joshua Kimmich. The dream of playing in the final is also inspiring Arjen Robben with the winger calling for “a top performance” in the next round. ”We need to move up a gear,” declared the 34-year-old forward. One thing is certain ahead of the draw: Nobody will want to face FC Bayern.
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