European Soccer Recap

Get Up to Date With the World of European Soccer

Liam Gregory, Reporter|March 23, 2022

This year, the Champions League final will take place in Paris. Real Madrid and Liverpool will square off again, a rematch of the 2018 final.

David Flores, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

This year, the Champions League final will take place in Paris. Real Madrid and Liverpool will square off again, a rematch of the 2018 final.

After the round of 16 in the Champions League and Europa League, a lot has changed.

Many teams that were favorites to win are out now, and many underdogs are at the quarterfinal stage of their tournament for the first time. Unlike the round of 16 draws, the quarterfinal draws are open, meaning teams from the same group and country can be drawn against each other. After the eventful round of 16, the draws for the quarterfinals of the Champions League are as follows: Benfica vs. Liverpool, Manchester City vs. Atletico Madrid, Chelsea vs. Real Madrid, and Villareal vs. Bayern Munich. The quarterfinals will take place on the 5/6 of April, and the second leg will take place on the 12/13 of April. The ties that I personally will be looking forward to are Manchester City vs. Atletico Madrid and Chelsea vs. Real Madrid.

Barcelona were a shock exit from this years Champions League group stages. The combination of losing Messi in the summer and the change of management in the middle of the season proved to be too much for Barcelona. Xavi will look to make the best of a bad situation by winning the Europa League

As for the Europa League, there are some new faces in some new places. West Ham, for example, find themselves in a European quarterfinal for the first time since 1981. They will face Lyon, who are no slouches when it comes to European competition. Another shock in the quarterfinals is Barcelona, but they’re only a shock competitor because they have never found themselves in the Europa League before this season. Usually they make it very far in the Champions League knockout stages, and they’re only in the Europa League due to a 3rd place finish in their group. Nevertheless, they face Frankfurt, and with Xavi at the helm and Aubameyang and Ousmane Dembele firing on all cylinders, they look to secure their semifinal spot in what should be a relatively easy tie.

The other two ties are RB Leipzig vs. Atalanta and Braga vs. Rangers. The first leg of these ties will take place on April 7th and the second leg will take place on April 14th. The mouthwatering game-to-watch for this tie would be RB Leipzig vs. Atalanta, but that is not to say that the other games don’t deserve some recognition. My thoughts, however, are that the semifinals will be even more exciting.

Relatively new to the scene, the UEFA Conference League was created just this season, and only 8 teams are left to vie for their place in the history books as first ever winners. A place in this tournament comes at placing 7th or 8th in your league and winning a play-in tournament. The first ever quarterfinal draw yielded these results: Bodo/Glimt vs. Roma, Feyenoord vs. Slavia Praha, Marseilles vs. PAOK, and Leicester vs. PSV Eindhoven. I’ve never even heard of some of these teams, but now they have the chance to prove themselves and put their hands on that trophy at the end of the season. The first leg of these games will take place on April 7th and the second leg will take place on April 14th.

Tottenham Hotspur were in the Conference League at the beginning of the season, but missed out on a place in the knockout stages due to a Covid outbreak. This meant that Tottenham were forced to forfeit their remaining group stage game, even though the club tried to reach a compromise

No matter what team you support and no matter the level of competition that suits you, soccer fans will have plenty to look forward to in the months of April and May.