UEFA: Madrid hope to repeat last year heroics

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16 with a resounding 5-0 aggregate win over Eintracht Frankfurt, whilst AC Milan narrowly squeaked past a broken Tottenham Hotspur team 1-0. However, Milan has had Napoli’s number this season, highlighted by a 4-0 away victory three weeks ago. Historically, they are the second most successful team in the competition — winning the coveted trophy seven times. Milan scraped past Napoli 1-0 in the home first leg, with it all to play for in the second. The second was an instant classic, with a missed penalty kick on both sides. Olivier Giroud opened the scoring for Milan before Victor Osimhen equalized in the dying moments. This was not enough, as Milan pulled out an unlikely aggregate victory, setting up a battle for the ages, between two sides that split a city and a stadium, accompanied by an undying hatred for one another.

And then there were four. The favorites are on one side, between Manchester City and Real Madrid. Man City is widely regarded as the best team in the world at the moment. They have the world’s best goalscorer in Norwegian robot Erling Haaland, the best midfielder in Belgian magician Kevin de Bruyne, and the best manager in Pep Guardiola. Real Madrid are the kings of this competition and seemingly win trophies for fun. Though they are not quite as bolstered as the blues, they can always get the job done. They are in for a grudge match of last season, when heavily favored

Man City choked away a two goal advantage in the dying moments of the second leg. They had led 5-3 on aggregate in the 90th minute, when substitute Rodrygo scored twice to equalize, setting up a Real Madrid extra time winner. Manchester City will seek revenge en route to its first Champions League title.

Now to Milan. Italy’s richest city with a population of 1.35 million people, Milan is home to an abundance of history, but is also known for its intense soccer culture. Particularly, it is home to the iconic San Siro Stadium, which houses both Inter and AC Milan, and is planned to be replaced by a new arena. This has split the million people that reside in the city, and caused everlasting tension between the two fanbases. Inter most recently won the Champions League in 200910, three years after AC Milan did. Both sides have come a long way since then, through a down period over the past decade to get back to this point. This is the biggest Milan derby in recent memory and not a matchup to be missed.

So far it has been a riveting UEFA Champions League season that almost seems scripted. Manchester City may be the favorites, but you can never count out Real Madrid.

The Milan sides are riding a Cinderella story and will hope to cap off the tournament in glory. No matter what happens, it will be a semifinal to remember. We’ll see what the script writers have up their sleeves for this one.