Five Champions League semi-final facts after Friday's draw paired holders Real Madrid with Juventus and Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich with his old club Barcelona
Paris: Five Champions League semi-final facts after Friday's draw paired holders Real Madrid with Juventus and Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich with his old club Barcelona:
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>> While Guardiola will be coming up against his old side, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti will also face one of his former clubs in Juventus. He was in charge of the Bianconeri between 1999 and 2001 but finished as a runner-up in Serie A in his two seasons there, first to Lazio and then to Roma.
>> Real Madrid took four points off Juventus in the group stage of last season's Champions League and beat the Turin side 1-0 in the 1998 final in Amsterdam thanks to a goal by Predrag Mijatovic. However, the Spanish giants have not won a two-legged tie against Italian opposition since beating Napoli in the European Cup first round in 1987.
>> The draw keeps alive the possibility of a first 'clasico' final between Real Madrid and Barcelona. Indeed, the draw means that whoever meets in the final in Berlin will be clashing at that stage of the competition for the first time ever.
>> Barcelona's 4-0 defeat to Bayern in Munich in the first leg of the 2013 semi-finals is their biggest defeat in the Champions League. Similarly, Bayern's biggest loss in the competition remains a 4-0 loss to Guardiola's Barcelona in the first leg of the quarter-finals in 2009. Survivors from the Barca side that day six years ago are Gerard Pique, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Daniel Alves, Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi, who scored twice. Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger both played for Bayern.
>> The clash between Barcelona and Bayern will also be a family affair. Twenty-four-year-old Spain midfielder Thiago Alcantara, who left Barca for Bayern in 2013, will take on his younger brother Rafinha.
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