Champions League: Quarter Final First Leg Preview

This season’s UEFA Champions League competition is nearing its conclusion, with the remaining eight teams now set to take part in the Quarter Finals, which begin on Tuesday evening.

Excitement and anticipation are only building amongst football fans across the world, with European Football’s Premier Club Cup Competition nearing its conclusion. There are eight clubs set to compete for a spot in the Semi-Finals, with the two legged UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals set to be played over the next two weeks, where the final four of this season’s competition is set to be decided.

The clubs remaining in this season’s UEFA Champions League competition at the last eight stage are as follows: Paris Saint Germain (France), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Real Madrid (Spain), Aston Villa (England), FC Barcelona (Spain), Inter Milan (Italy), Arsenal (England), and Bayern Munich (Germany).

France and Italy both have just one club remaining in this season’s competition, whilst Spain, Germany, and Spain all have two clubs vying for glory in this tournament this year.

The Quarter Finals will see Luis Enrique’s PSG take on Unai Emery’s Aston Villa at the famous Parc des Princes in Paris in the first leg before this tie concludes with the second leg at the historic Villa Park the following week.

As for the only other English Club remaining, Arsenal, Mikel Arteta’s side will be facing the reigning European Champions in the form of Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid at the Emirates Stadium on the evening of Tuesday 8th April 2025 in the first leg in North London. This is before the Gunners then travel for the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu in the Spanish Capital.

Meanwhile, two giants of European Football in the form of Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich and Simone Inzaghi’s Inter Milan will go toe to toe with each other in the first leg at the Allianz Arena in Bavaria, before then meeting once again at the San Siro in Milan for the second leg just days later.

Finally, the other Quarter Final taking place in the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League is to be contested between 1997 European Champions Borussia Dortmund, who will be taking on 5 time European Champions FC Barcelona over two legs. The first game will be taking place at the Estadi Olimpic Lluís Companys, the temporary home of the Blaugrana. Then, the second and final leg of this highly anticipated Quarter Final tie will be played a week later at BVB’s Signal Iduna Park.

Here, we are going to be taking a look ahead at the first leg of all of the ties in the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals, which will be taking place across the continent of Europe from Tuesday 8th April to Wednesday 9th April 2025.

We will start with the fixtures taking place on Tuesday evening, and we will look at the game between Arsenal and Real Madrid at the Emirates Stadium first.

Arsenal (England) vs. Real Madrid (Spain) – Emirates Stadium – Tuesday 8^th April, 20:00 KO

A blockbuster UEFA Champions League Quarter Final tie is set to be played between Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal and Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid at the Emirates Stadium in London in what is a 20:00 kick-off on Tuesday evening.

In the League Phase, the Gunners came in 3rd place with a total of 19 points after beating the likes of PSG, Sporting CP, and AS Monaco, whilst Los Blancos finished in 11th place with 15 points – they were able to beat teams such as VFB Stuttgart, Borussia Dortmund, and Atalanta.

In the Round of 16, Dutch Club PSV Eindhoven were the opponents for Arsenal and in the first leg at the Philips Stadion in the Netherlands, Arteta’s side were emphatic and ruthless 7 – 1 winners before drawing 2 – 2 with them at the Emirates for a 9 – 3 win on aggregate. This set up their tie against Real Madrid.

As for Ancelotti’s Madrid side, they had to go through a knockout play-off round where they were able to beat Manchester City over two legs, beating Pep Guardiola’s Cityzens 6 – 3 on aggregate following a 3 – 2 win at the Etihad Stadium in the first leg, and a subsequent 3 – 1 triumph at the Santiago Bernabéu in the second and final leg.

In the Round of 16, they faced their cross-city rivals Atletico Madrid, led by their Argentinian Head Coach Diego Simeone. It was a 2 – 1 triumph in the first leg before they won 4 – 2 on penalties after being defeated 1 – 0 after extra time away from home at the Estadio Metropolitano in the second leg.

Arsenal and Real Madrid last met in the UEFA Champions League in the 2005/06 Round of 16 – Arsenal won the first leg in Madrid 1 – 0 thanks to a winning goal from Thierry Henry early on in the second half before a goalless draw at the Emirates secured Arsenal’s passage into that year’s Quarter Finals.

Bayern Munich (Germany) vs. Inter Milan (Italy) – Allianz Arena – Tuesday 8^th April, 20:00 KO

The next match that we are taking a look at the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League Quarter Final tie between Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich and Simone Inzaghi’s Inter Milan at the famous Allianz Stadium in Munich on the evening of Tuesday 8th April, with the game kicking off at 8pm in the evening.

In the League Phase, Bayern were able to get a grand total of 15 points to finish in 12th place, whilst Inter Milan came in 4th. The Bavarians beat the likes of Benfica, Paris Saint Germain, and Shakhtar Donetsk, before then facing Celtic over two legs in the Knockout Phase Play-Offs.

In the first leg, Bayern beat the Bhoys 2 – 1 at Celtic Park in Glasgow, before they then drew 1 – 1 with each other back in Germany in the second leg. Vincent Kompany’s team were then emphatic 5 – 0 aggregate winners against fellow German outfit and reigning Bundesliga Champions Bayer Leverkusen led by former Liverpool favourite Xabi Alonso. Bayern beat them 3 – 0 at home in the first leg before then beating Leverkusen 2 – 0 away from home in the second leg.

As for Inter, after beating the likes of Arsenal, RB Leipzig, and AS Monaco in the League Phase, they went straight into the Round of 16 where they would go and face Dutch Giants Feyenoord over two legs. Inter won 2 – 0 at De Kuip in Rotterdam in what was the first leg, before then winning 2 – 1 in the second leg at the San Siro to win 4 – 1 on aggregate to set up this tie against Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich side in the Quarter Finals.

These two clubs last met in the UEFA Champions League back in the 2022/23 Group Stages – Bayern won it 2 – 0 on Matchday Six after Benjamin Pavard (32’) and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (72’) both scored either side of half time at the Allianz Arena.

Paris Saint Germain (France) vs. Aston Villa (England) – Parc des Princes – Wednesday 9^th April, 20:00 KO

Next up is the high profile Champions League Quarter Final clash between Luis Enrique’s Paris Saint Germain and Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, with the first leg of this tie set to take place at the famous Parc des Princes in the heart of Paris on the evening of Wednesday 9th April, with this game set to kick-off at 8pm.

In the League Phase, PSG failed to finish within the top eight, with them finishing down in 15th place after victories against the likes of Girona, RB Salzburg, Manchester City, and VFB Stuttgart, they then came up against fellow French Club Brest over two legs, beating them emphatically with a 10 – 0 scoreline on aggregate before then going on to beat Liverpool 4 – 1 on penalties after the tie had ended level at 1 – 1 following extra time to set up this tie against Aston Villa.

Moving on to Aston Villa, the Unai Emery led club sneaked into the top eight in order to automatically qualify for the Round of 16 after finishing down in 8th place after earning a grand total of no less than 16 points from their 8 matches. The Villans had been able to beat the likes of Bayern Munich, Bologna, RB Leipzig, and Celtic.

In the Round of 16, they were drawn to go ahead and face Club Brugge again, this time over two legs following their encounter in the League Phase, where Villa had been beaten 1 – 0 in Brugge. Villa were 3 – 1 winners in the away leg, before then comfortably beating their Belgian opponants 3 – 0 at Villa Park in what was an emphatic and very comfortable 6 – 1 win on aggregate for the club from the Second City. This set up the Quarter Final tie with PSG.

This game will be the first time ever that these two clubs, Aston Villa and PSG, have ever met competitively in any competition over the course of their respective histories to date.

FC Barcelona (Spain) vs. Borussia Dortmund (Germany) – Estadi Olimpic Lluís Companys – Wednesday 9^th April, 20:00 KO

Finally, we are now going to be taking a look ahead at the fascinating and high profile UEFA Champions League Quarter Final tie between Hansi Flick’s FC Barcelona and Niko Kovac’s Borussia Dortmund at Barça’s temporary home which is the Estadi Olimpic Lluís Companys on Wednesday 9th April in what is going to be an 8pm Kick-Off.

In the League Phase, FC Barcelona finished second, only behind Liverpool, after getting 19 points from their 8 matches. The Blaugrana had been able to beat the likes of Bayern Munich, Red Star Belgrade, Borussia Dortmund, and Benfica to book themselves a place in the Round of 16, where they were able to beat the aforementioned Benfica 4 – 1 on aggregate over two legs. This is how they booked themselves a place in the Quarter Finals against Borussia Dortmund.

As for Dortmund, they ended up with a 10th place finish with 15 points, just one point adrift of the top eight. This came after beating the likes of Club Brugge, Celtic, Sturm Graz, Dinamo Zagreb, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Sporting CP. In the knockout phase playoffs, they faced Sporting CP again, this time beating them 3 – 0 in the first leg at the Estadio José Alvalade in Lisbon Portugal, before then sealing their place in the Round of 16 thanks to a goalless draw against Sporting at home in the second leg.

They faced French Club Lille in the Round of 16, drawing 1 – 1 with them in Dortmund before then winning 2 – 1 in Lille in the second leg to win their place in the Quarter Finals against FC Barcelona.

All eyes are on these high profile matches in the first of two legs in the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals. There is plenty of anticipation and excitement that is building rapidly ahead of these fixtures getting underway, with the first matches taking place on the evening of Tuesday 8th April 2025, with the games both kicking off in London and Munich respectively.

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