Matchplug

Arsenal and Atletico Madrid meet for the first time in Europe this season as the two sides look to end the season with a silverware.

The Gunners would be banking on home support to help them get a firm footing in the finals ahead of the second leg. They also know that winning this competition is their surest route to qualifying for the Champions League as their top four hopes have been ended.

Atletico Madrid are under less pressure than the Gunners. Diego Simeone’s men are surely going to finish inside the top four of the La Liga, however, they would be keen to win their first trophy since they moved to the Wanda Metropolitana, and they remain favourites to win this competition for good reason.

The Gunners survived a scare in the second leg of their quarterfinals matches against CSKA Moscow despite carrying a 4-1 win from the first leg. In the end Aaron Ramsey and Danny Welbeck helped them scale through 6-3 on aggregate.

Atletico Madrid also survived a scare in Portugal. The Spaniards held a 2-0 win ahead of the second leg but fell to a 1-0 in Portugal, it could have been worse for them, but they are now in the semis with the Gunners in their way.

These two teams meet for the third time this season and this time there is a ticket to the final at stake. Can Marseille get to the final or will Salzburg get another win over Marseille here?

When they met in the group stage, Salzburg got the upper hand with 4 points from the two clashes as they beat Marseille 1-0 at home and drew the other leg goalless in France.  The Austrians finished as group winners, with Marseille following them four points adrift.

The two of them survived the last round in style. The Austrians shockingly beat SS Lazio 4-1 at home after they went 4-2 down in the first leg to progress, while Marseille defeated RB Leipzig 5-2 in the return leg having lost the first leg 1-0 in Germany.

Marseille have not lost a home game in the Europa League this season and they have won all but one of their 8 home games in the competition this season. The only team to have denied them home victory this season is their visitors in this clash.

Salzburg have lost only one of their away games in this competition this season and they have three wins and three draws from their last seven games on the road, they would look to take that form and get a win in this first leg.

This Copa Libertadores game brings two of the biggest teams in Brazil and Argentina together with the Argentinians making a tricky trip down to Brazil after falling to a 1-0 loss at home to their host.

A win for Santos would help them put one foot in the next round. They lost their first game of the competition to Real Garcilaso, however, they have recovered well to record wins against Estudiantes and Nacional to move to the top of group 6.

Santos fell to a defeat at Bahia in their last league games, however, they won their last home game 2-0 against Ceara and that should keep their confidence high ahead of this match. They also tend to be strong in this competition with 5 wins from their last 6 home games.

Estudiantes come into this game very low on confidence as they have been struggling both locally and in the continent. They lost their last game against Belgrano, although they made whole scale changes, it seems not to matter who play these days, they have just found it incredibly had to get the results.

They have lost 3 of their last 4 games, scoring just once in the process. They are currently second on the table with four points, yet it seems as though they would still be eliminated from the group stage just like last season.

Bayern Munich’s quarterfinal match with Sevilla was pretty lowkey with the return leg in Bavaria ending in a goalless draw. The Germans went through thanks to a 2-1 win in Seville in the first leg.

This semifinal match promises to be more action-packed with Los Blancos actively chasing their 3rd consecutive European crown and the Germans looking for revenge after losing to them for much of their past few meetings.

Bayern have gone on to win all of their last few matches after the stalemate against Sevilla. They have defeated Borussia Monchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen, and Hannover 96, scoring 14 goals in the process, they would now look to take that form a get a good first leg advantage in this game.

Real Madrid’s quarterfinal was nothing close to low-profile. Los Blancos were leading 3-0 from the first leg in Turin, however, they found themselves 3-0 down with more than an hour played at the Bernabeu in the return leg. It took a controversial penalty awarded by Englishman Michael Oliver and converted by none other than Christiano Ronaldo for the European champions to reach this semifinal.

Ronaldo has now netted 120 Champions League goals, 20 more than Lionel Messi. He has scored 12 goals in 10 Champions League games this season, netting in all of their matches in the competition this season. Los Blancos have won five and lost just one of their last six meetings with Bayern Munich.