Champions League quarterfinals: Cue drama as Mo Salah gets ready to meet Sergio Ramos again after Liverpool are drawn to play Real Madrid

The final time Actual Madrid and Liverpool met at a European cup closing it resulted in tears. 

It’s prefer it was yesterday (although it was April 2018) when Madrid defender Sergio Ramos locked arms with Egyptian winger Mo Salah and threw him to the bottom in a brutal sort out. It was the thud that was heard all over the world — echoed by the heart-drop of tens of millions of Reds followers who had simply watched their desires shatter, together with Salah’s proper arm that absorbed all of his body weight.

The tearful 25-year-old curled up into the grass with (what he would later uncover was) a sprained shoulder and, evidently, a damaged coronary heart.

Salah’s ambitions of cinching his first Champions League title — after a 13-year watch for Liverpool, who had final gained it in 2005 — had been snuffed out in that nightmarish second, which additionally put into doubt whether or not he’d be capable of play within the World Cup 2018 for Egypt (he was later deemed match).

It’s unclear the place Salah and Ramos stand at this time outdoors of some passive aggressive feedback within the press. If we had been to hazard a wild guess, these two aren’t checking up on one another over FaceTime or exchanging banter on WhatsApp.

A pair months later, Ramos obtained the 2017-18 Champions League Greatest Defender of the Season Award and, on his manner again from the stage to his seat, made the brazen split-second resolution to the touch Salah’s arm. The second went viral as Salah’s deadpan face remained stony as ever.

The excellent news is: Liverpool went on to win the Champions League the next 12 months.

However, as all the time in soccer, it is not over. The 2 groups are set to satisfy once more on the quarterfinals of the Champions League subsequent month, with leg 1 happening on April 6 at 10pm (UAE time) and leg 2 kicking off on April 13 on the similar time.

Hopefully there gained’t be want for medics and stretchers this time. Actual Madrid, who’ve gained 13 Champions League titles, are essentially the most profitable workforce within the historical past of the competitors and will likely be trying to preserve that tally up.

Liverpool — who’ve six CL wins whole — will likely be trying to redeem a retched English Premier League season that noticed them dawdling in direction of the center of the desk, relatively than successfully defending their title.

However that’s not the one CL face-off that’s positive to be tense.

German giants Bayern Munich, the reigning champs of Europe, will as soon as once more go head-to-head with French facet Paris St-Germain. PSG can have an opportunity to reverse their doomed destiny from final season, once they misplaced the ultimate in a 1-0 consequence in opposition to Bayern. (That match, by the way, additionally resulted in tears for gamers like Neymar.) What made it extra heart-wrenching was the truth that it was PSG’s first time to the finals of the competitors after a report 110 Champions League matches performed.

Might they pull a Liverpool and make second time the appeal? Solely one in every of these two large groups will make it to the semi-finals, and it is positive be electrifying both manner.

In the meantime, Manchester Metropolis will tackle German facet Borussia Dortmund — and each groups are anticipated to be hungry for a win. Metropolis, presently high of the desk within the EPL, has by no means gained a Champions League title, whereas Dortmund have solely gained one again in 1997.

Final however not least, Porto — who knocked Juventus out of the competitors — will tackle Chelsea, who discover themselves within the quarterfinals for the primary time in seven years.

Man Metropolis v Dortmund (Leg 1: April 6, 10pm, Leg 2: April 13, 10pm)

Porto v Chelsea (Leg 1: April 6, 10pm, Leg 2: April 13, 10pm)

Bayern Munich v PSG (Leg 1: April 6, 10pm / Leg 2: April 13, 10pm)

Actual Madrid v Liverpool (Leg 1: April 6, 10pm / Leg 2: April 13, 10pm)