After a rather dull round of 16, the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals have been all-time good.
And, with second leg clashes between Bayern Munich and Arsenal and Manchester City and Real Madrid, they’re, somehow, about to get a whole lot better.
So before kick-off in these two heavyweight ties, here’s three things you should keep an eye out for in both games.
Leroy Sane vs Arsenal’s left-back
If you watched either of Arsenal’s last two games, you’ll know just how much of a problem position left-back is for Mikel Arteta right now.
At the weekend, Leon Bailey made mince meat of Oleksandr Zinchenko by forcing the left-back to actually play left-back in the second half of the clash with Aston Villa – pulling away from his favoured inverted full-back duties in the heart of his team’s midfield.
A few days prior, another left-back option struggled too. That time it was Jakub Kiwior, who looked so out of his depth in the first leg clash with Bayern Munich that he had to be subbed off at half-time.
Regardless of which left-back plays on Wednesday, expect Sane to give them a rather torrid time at the Allianz Arena.
Jude Bellingham’s clutch gene
Despite being 20 years old, Jude Bellingham has already developed a knack for scoring big goals in big games.
An El Clasico winner earlier in the season was one of the many he’s chipped in with already for Real Madrid, and plenty of onlookers will be expecting him to come up with the good at the Etihad this Wednesday.
While his recent form hasn’t been as good – he hasn’t scored since early February – we’re not betting against him being the match-winner for Los Blancos once again.
Erling Haaland’s performance
The ‘League Two player’ (according to Roy Keane), has come in for quite a lot of flack for his performance at the Santiago Bernabeu last week.
And considering he only managed one shot on goal, completed just six passes and lost five duels, it’s easy to see why.
To get rid of the ‘goes missing in big games’ stigma, Haaland needs to step up for Man City on Wednesday evening and come up with the goals that’ll see them through to the Champions League semi-finals.
