Arsenal face Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals in a repeat of the 2006 final won by the Spanish giants.
Manchester United, beaten by Barcelona in last year’s final, face Bayern Munich, Inter are up against CSKA Moscow and Lyon were pitted against fellow French side Bordeaux in the draw yesterday.
The first legs are scheduled for March 30 and March 31 with the second legs on April 6 and April 7.
The semi-final draw was also held, with the winner of the United and Bayern tie meeting Lyon or Bordeaux, while Inter or CSKA will play Arsenal or Barca.
For Arsenal, the draw offers up a chance to gain revenge on missing out to Barcelona 2-1 at the Stade de France in Paris four years ago. It will also mean a return to the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal old boy Thierry Henry.
Arsenal secretary David Miles said: “This draw gives us what it gives us — we can only play and hopefully beat what’s in front of us. Actually we owe Barcelona one — if that’s the word. We’ll be up for it and we are looking to get a couple of decent results.”
For three-time winners Manchester United, yesterday’s draw meant they cross swords again with Bayern, the team they beat with two stoppage-time goals at the Camp Nou for the 1999 title.
Two years later, however, Bayern beat United in the quarter-finals to go on to lift the trophy themselves.
“It’s a tough, but also very exciting draw,” Bayern president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said. “Manchester United are at the summit of European football and we will have to play at our best level, and even higher, to make it to the semi-finals. Manchester are the favorites for this tie, but that’s what makes it exciting — to go and beat the favorites.”
Meanwhile, three-time winners Liverpool face a tricky Europa League quarter-final against Benfica after the draw yesterday.
Rafa Benitez’s team will start as favorites in their bid to claim some silverware after missing out on the FA Cup, Champions League and almost certainly the English Premiership title this season.
Fulham face German club VfL Wolfsburg, while Hamburg SV play Belgian outfit Standard Liege.
The fourth quarter-final pitches Valencia against fellow La Liga club Atletico Madrid, with the winner playing either Benfica or Liverpool in the semi-final. The other semi-final will see the winner of the Hamburg v Standard Liege tie playing either Fulham or Wolfsburg.
The Europa League final takes place in Hamburg on May 12.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite