Champions League Quarterfinals: Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Sporting CP, Arsenal

Champions League quarterfinals are upon us. On Wednesday, we have two teams trying to hang on to their leads while the other two plan to stage a comeback.

Coincidentally, Real Madrid and Sporting CP both lost at home last week. With Bayern Munich and Arsenal being strong at their homes, can these two teams actually stage a comeback?

Let’s take a deep dive into these fixtures.

Bayern lead 2-1 on aggregateKickoff: 3:00pm ET/12:00pm PT

Even when Real Madrid are not in good form, they are usually strong at the Santiago Bernabéu. After all, they reached the quarterfinals after putting three past Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabéu.

However, last week, they suffered a rare home defeat as Vincent Kompany became the first Bayern Munich manager in 25 years to win a 90-minute match at their storied stadium.

Alvaro Arbeloa fielded a strong line-up spearheaded by Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius up top, but it was Bayern who scored the first two goals courtesy of Luis Diaz and Harry Kane.

Mbappé did get one late on for Madrid, which gives them some hope heading into Germany for the second leg. They will be praying Manuel Neuer doesn’t have another brilliant performance in him (he made nine saves).

Remontada , the Spanish word for a dramatic comeback, is something always associated with Madrid – especially in the Champions League. Just look at their results in the 2021/22 season, where they made the impossible possible.

However, that comeback usually happens at home, which is a special place. Can they really pull this off in Germany, in Bayern’s backyard? That might be asking for too much.

Bayern have all the edges. They’re spectacularly coached and are once again running away with the Bundesliga title. They’ve lost just once in the league this season. They’ve scored a whopping 35 goals in last 10 games. In addition to scoring in every single game this season, they have a higher goal differential (+78) than points (76). It’s very unlikely Madrid’s shaky defense will keep them out. So will Madrid outscore them? That seems near impossible as well.

With the two teams coming into this game with very different forms, there is only one likely outcome: Bayern will punch the ticket to the next round.

Prediction: Bayern 2-1 Real Madrid

Arsenal lead 1-0 on aggregateKickoff: 3:00pm ET, 12:00pm PT

Nobody really expected Sporting to be in the Champions League quarterfinals, especially after they lost 3-0 to FK Bodø/Glimt in the first leg of the Round of 16. However, they staged a dramatic comeback to beat them 5-0 in Portugal to get here, and they will not give up easily.

In the first leg, Sporting played well at home and put Arsenal under pressure for the large stretches of the game. They led the visitors in shots (11 to 8) and shots on goal (5 to 4) but couldn’t finish their chances.

Arsenal then got a very late winner through Kai Havertz. Now, the Premier League giant just has to make sure they don’t lose at home, while the Portuguese side has to do a near-impossible mission: beat Arsenal at the Emirates.

This is a tough task for Sporting CP. Arsenal have lost just three times at the Emirates this season. However, two of those three times came recently. Arsenal lost to Manchester City at home on March 22nd and then to Bournemouth last weekend. That shaky recent form should give Sporting some hope. They’ve lost three of their last four games, while Sporting have won four of their last five.

If Sporting want to pull a comeback, their top scorers like Luis Suárez and Pote will have to be on fire. The two have scored 37 goals combined this season, do they have enough left in their tank to give Arsenal defenders trouble?

It would be a nice story to see Sporting pull another comeback, but even with Arsenal’s form it’s hard to see them suffer back-to-back home defeats. Sporting will put pressure on them, but Arsenal should come out on top.

Prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Sporting