The Shoemaker Bugle

By Edmundo Manriquez

The Champions League quarter finals have been set: The first leg will be held on April 11 and April 12.

First up, on April 11, are Benfica vs Inter Milan in Lisbon, Portugal, and Manchester City vs Bayern Munchen, played in Manchester, England. Both games will start at 11:00 PM PDT.

The next day, both Real Madrid and Chelsea will be going against each other at 12 noon PDT in Spain, and A.C. Milan will be playing Napoli in Italy, also starting at noon.

The 2nd leg of the Quarter Finals will take place from April 18-19.

These fixtures will be a hard and well fought series of games as they will battle it out against each other to make Champions League glory. 

Benfica and Inter will be an interesting game as Inter Milan has the better squad but have not been in good form. Recently, they have lost their last two league games against Juventus and Spezia, who are 17th in the Italian League and are nearly close to being relegated to the 2nd division.

Benfica, on the other hand, haven’t lost a single game since February 9. I predict Benfica narrowly winning this game 3-2 in aggregate, and advancing to the next round of the Champions League.

Manchester City vs Bayern Munchen will be the highlight game of the quarter finals, as both teams have strong lineups and have breezed through the group stages, comfortably winning their games in the round of 16. Despite the loss to Leverkusen in the German League, Bayern will be strong enough to brush off this result and bring their best to the Champions League.

Manchester City have been on fire lately and their star player Erling Haaland has scored 8 goals in his last two games, and will definitely be a problem for the defense of Bayern Munchen. I see this game ending in a Manchester City win, and ending 6-4 on aggregate with Haaland leading the score sheet.

The 2nd leg on April 18-19 will feature Real Madrid vs Chelsea, and Napoli vs A.C. Milan.

Real Madrid vs Chelsea will be an interesting game to see as Real Madrid will be attempting to defend the title of the Champions League. Real Madrid have been dominating the Champions League group stages and even beat Liverpool in the first round on a score of 6-2 on aggregate. They are 2nd in the Spanish League and are showing improvements and not slowing down.

Chelsea, meanwhile, has not been convincing this season as they are 10th in the English League and almost got knocked out in the first leg–suffering a 1-0 loss–but were able to come back in the second game and win 2-0, advancing them to this point. I see Real Madrid winning this game convincingly on a score of 4-1 on aggregate, advancing them to the next round.

The Napoli vs A.C. Milan match will be the first time these teams have faced each other in the Champions League. Milan are 4th in the Italian League while Napoli are 1st in the league at a whopping 19 points clear from 2nd place. The last time these clubs faced each other was back on September 18, 2022, and the game ended in a Napoli 2-1 win over A.C. Milan.

Napoli’s attack has been on fire, and their star duo of Osimhen and Kvaratshkhelia have combined for over 37 goals and 10 assists in the Italian League alone.

Milan have been defensively solid, but their attack lacks creativity and won’t be enough to stop Napoli. For that reason, I see Napoli beating Milan 4-0 in aggregate, advancing them to the next round of the Champions League.