UCL: Man City To Face Real Madrid; Liverpool, Villarreal Clash In Second Semifinals Game

Manchester City booked their place in the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League after a fiesty quarterfinals second leg fixture against Atletico Madrid at the Wanda Metrapolitano on Wednesday night.

The game finished goalless but was not devoid of drama as the duo of Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker had to go off injured in a game that ended with a red card for Atletico and six yellow cards for players of both teams.

The first leg tie had ended 1-0 in favour of Pep Guardiola’s side.

UEFA is expected to hand some punitive measures to both sides for possibly failing to control their players with reports indicating that there were still tunnel confrontations between players of each team after full-time.

Liverpool were held to a thrilling 3-3 draw by Portuguese giants, Benfica but it was too little, too late as the Reds advanced 6-4 on aggregate after a convincing 3-1 win in the first leg.

Liverpool will face Villarreal who killed off the dreams of six-times winners Bayern Munich courtesy of a late goal by Nigeria international Samuel Chukwueze while City will battle Real Madrid.

The first legs of the semifinals will hold on April 26 and 27 with the return legs holding a week later on May 3 and 4.

The two semifinals will feature the same country versus country pairings for the third time since 2013.

The final will be played at the Parc de Princes on May 28.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.