It’s an action-packed week in Europe, with quarterfinal fixtures in both UEFA club competitions–Champions League and Europa League. The Champions League gets all the attention of course, with the eight remaining teams playing the first leg of the quarterfinals on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, Spurs make the trip to Spain to play Real Madrid, and defending champions Inter Milan host surprising Schalke. On Wednesday, it’s a battle of English rivals at Stamford Bridge–Chelsea versus Manchester United; while another surprise quarterfinalist, Shakhtar Donetsk, make the long trip from eastern Ukraine to play ball-hogging Barcelona. They’ll all turn around and play the return legs next week (April 12-13).
But after gorging on those four matches Tuesday and Wednesday, don’t neglect the Europa League quarterfinals–all eight (1st leg) fixtures will be played Thursday, with a bunch of interesting clubs on display: three from Portugal (Porto, Benfica, Braga); two from the Netherlands (Twente and PSV); and one each from Spain, Ukraine and Russia (Villareal, Spartak Moscow, and Dynamo Kiev).
See below for all the fixture details–and check back here during the week for match previews and reports.
Champions League Quarterfinals – 1st Leg (all matches kickoff at 20:45CET = 2:45pmET)
Tuesday – 5 April 2011
Real Madrid |
vs |
Tottenham |
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Referee: Felix Brych (GER) – Stadium: Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid (ESP) | ||||
Internazionale |
vs |
Schalke |
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Referee: Martin Atkinson (ENG) – Stadium: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan (ITA) |
Wednesday – 6 April 2011
Chelsea |
vs |
Man. United |
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Referee: TBD – Stadium: Stamford Bridge, London (ENG) | ||||
Barcelona |
vs |
Shakhtar Donetsk |
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Referee: TBD – Stadium: Camp Nou, Barcelona (ESP) |
Europa League Quarterfinals – 1st Leg
Thursday – 7 April 2011
Porto | vs | Spartak Moskva | ||
Referee: TBD – Stadium: Estádio do Dragão, Porto (POR) | ||||
Benfica | vs | PSV | ||
Referee: TBD – Stadium: Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Lisbon (POR)
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Villarreal | vs | Twente | ||
Referee: TBD – Stadium: Estadio El Madrigal, Villarreal (ESP) | ||||
Dynamo Kyiv | vs | Braga | ||
Referee: TBD – Stadium: Valeriy Lobanovskiy Stadium, Kyiv (UKR) |