The top 8 is now known! Before the draw of the quarters, scheduled for Friday, European football knows the teams that will fight for a place in the semi-finals in April.

And Real Madrid, the defending champions, will be one of them. The spectacular victory in Liverpool in the first leg (5-2) offered a comfortable lead to Karim Benzema's partners before the return leg, but they took care to disgust the English again, on the same score as the 2022 final at the Stade de France.

The work of the evening was signed Benzema, Ballon d'Or always decisive a few days before an international break that will offer rest to the French striker, who has withdrawn from the France team.

The N.9 picked up a pass from Vinicius (78th) late in the game, when Liverpool began to discover themselves. In search of its 15th title in C1, a record, Real still seems armed to go very far in the competition, like the youth of Eduardo Camavinga, preferred in the middle to his compatriot Aurélien Tchouaméni at kick-off.

Osimhen continues

Madrid are not the only ones, however, to have impressed in this return leg. Manchester City and Erling Haaland showed it on Tuesday by strangling Leipzig 7-0, Bayern also by eliminating Paris SG without question.

Napoli's Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen after opening the scoring against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League quarter-final at the Diego-Maradona stadium in Naples, Italy on March 15, 2023 © Tiziana FABI / AFP

And Napoli, on Wednesday, also positioned itself as a title contender, despite a pre-match marked by scuffles in the city center involving German fans without tickets.

Largely at the top of Serie A, Luciano Spalletti's men are on a mission this season and it is not Eintracht Frankfurt who could compete against the Neapolitan grinta, let alone without Randal Kolo Muani, the striker of the Blues suspended.

Already scorer in the first leg in Germany (2-0), Victor Osimhen repeated at the Maradona stadium by scoring a double (45th + 2, 53rd), before the penalty goal of the Polish Piotr Zielinski (64th).

In the wake of the Nigerian, Napoli allows Italy to send three representatives to the quarter-finals, with Inter and AC Milan. For Napoli, this is simply a first at this stage of the event.

In the quarter-finals (11-12 and 18-19 April), the three Italian clubs will meet two English clubs - Chelsea and Manchester City -, a Spanish club - Real -, a German team - Bayern - and a Portuguese representative, Benfica.

© 2023 AFP