Real Madrid, Juventus to meet again in CL

NYON, Switzerland (AP):

In a rematch of last season's Champions League final, title holders Real Madrid were paired with Juventus in the quarter-finals draw yesterday.

Madrid will travel to Turin for the first leg on April 3 against the Italian champions, who they defeated 4-1 in the 2017 final at Cardiff.

Liverpool were drawn to host Manchester City first on April 4 in an all-English clash. After all five English clubs advanced from the group stage to the round of 16, only one will now be in the semi-finals.

Also yesterday, five-time champions Barcelona and Bayern Munich were paired with teams that have never won the tournament.

Barcelona are at home first against Roma on April 4, and Bayern face Sevilla in the first leg in Spain on April 3. All return games are played the following week.

Madrid is likely to start favourites against Juventus in pursuit of a record-extending 13th European title and a first hat-trick since Bayern won their third title in a row in 1976. Still, Juventus did in the Round of 16 what Madrid could not do in the group stage : beat Tottenham. They advanced with an impressive 2-1 second-leg win at Wembley Stadium.

"It says a lot about the winning mentality (of Juventus) and their personality and experience to play these kind of matches," Madrid director Emilio Butragueno said.

Barcelona will be expected to advance from their 11th straight appearance in the quarterfinals, with Lionel Messi in attack and the competition's best defensive record of just two goals conceded.

The final is on May 26 at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine.

Each finalist will receive 17,000 tickets for their fans with the stadium capacity set at 63,000 for the showpiece game, UEFA said.

A further 6,700 tickets went on sale on Friday to fans worldwide, priced from US$86 to US$550.