Chelsea FC News

Graham Potter’s Chelsea have been paired with Champions League holders Real Madrid in the quarter-finals, while Pep Guardiola faces a reunion with former club Bayern Munich for Manchester City.

Both Premier League sides will meet each other in the semi-final, should both Chelsea and City advance through their last-eight ties.

Meanwhile, there will be an all-Italian derby in the quarter-finals as Serie A champions AC Milan face current leaders Napoli, while Inter Milan will take on Benfica.

Champions League quarter-final draw in full:

First legs on April 11 or April 12, second legs April 18 or April 19

Real Madrid vs Chelsea

Benfica vs Inter Milan

Manchester City vs Bayern Munich

AC Milan vs Napoli

Champions League semi-final draw in full:

First legs on May 9 or May 10, second legs May 16 or May 17

AC Milan or Napoli vs Benfica or Inter Milan

Real Madrid or Chelsea vs Manchester City or Bayern Munich

The first legs of the quarter-finals will take place on April 11 and 12, with the return fixtures on April 18 and 19.

Meanwhile, the semi-final first-legs are due to happen on May 9 and May 10, with the return legs on May 16 and May 17.

Chelsea beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 on aggregate in their last-16 tie, but now face a major task to reach the last four against holders Real.

The Blues exited last season’s Champions League to Real at the same stage – losing the first-leg 3-1 at Stamford Bridge before putting in a valiant outing at the Santiago Bernabeu,

Chelsea, then managed by Thomas Tuchel, went 3-0 up to lead the tie but goals from Rodrygo and Karim Benzema – the latter strike coming in extra-time – saw the Blues crash out 5-4 on aggregate.

Meanwhile, Man City manager Guardiola will face a familiar foe in former side Bayern – the club he won seven major titles with between 2013 and 2016, including three Bundesliga titles.

City and Bayern also have a connection through Joao Cancelo, who will be able to play against his parent club after moving on loan to the German side, with an option to make the deal permanent for around £60m.

Should Chelsea and City go on to meet each other in the Champions League last four, it will lead to six meetings between the two clubs in this season alone.

Both Premier League clubs were paired against each other in the third rounds of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup earlier this season.

Potter excited by Madrid test but focused on Everton

Chelsea boss Graham Potter is excited by the prospect of facing reigning champions Real Madrid in the last eight but insists his focus is firmly on this weekend’s Premier League clash with Everton.

The Blues were drawn against the reigning champions in Friday’s draw, with the winners facing Manchester City or Bayern Munich in the semis.

It follows footage of Potter earlier this week drawing cheers from Chelsea supporters at a fan event by saying they would try to “win the ******* Champions League”.

“Well, I said we would try to win the Champions League and that’s the same I’m sure for the other seven clubs as well,” he said at his press conference.

“The other clubs will say you can lose in the quarter-final, because that’s the nature of the Champions League.

“We’ll focus on Real Madrid when we get there but at the moment it’s Everton.

“The feeling is excited but as I said, I’d rather speak about Everton because that game is tomorrow and the other stuff is a long way away.”

Can Cancelo face Man City?

Manchester City have confirmed that Cancelo is eligible to face them.

Cancelo joined Bayern Munich on loan in January after becoming dissatisfied with his number of minutes at City.

Since moving to the Allianz Arena, the Portuguese international has started four out of Bayern’s six Bundesliga matches – but only played 49 minutes of their two-legged victory against Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16.

Opta stats on Chelsea and Man City draws

• Chelsea have only lost one of their seven games against Real Madrid in European competition – indeed, they have the lowest percentage of losses against Real Madrid (14%) of any side to have played them 5+ times in Europe.
• Chelsea’s only defeat in seven matches against Real Madrid in Europe came in their most recent one at Stamford Bridge, losing 1-3 in the 2021-22 quarter-final first leg.
• Real Madrid have won their last four UEFA Champions League ties against English sides, beating Chelsea in last season’s quarter-final, Manchester City in last season’s semi-finals and Liverpool in last season’s final and this season’s round of 16.
• All six previous meetings between Man City and Bayern Munich came in the UEFA Champions League group stages (2011-12, 2013-14, 2014-15), with each side winning three times.
• This will be Pep Guardiola’s first meeting with Bayern Munich since leaving the club. His only managerial games against them came in the 2008-09 Champions League quarter-finals, knocking them out with Barcelona en route to lifting the trophy.
• Man City have progressed from all four of their previous UEFA Champions League knockout ties against German clubs, including one quarter-final (2020-21 v Borussia Dortmund).

FIFA is set to approve plans on Tuesday for the biggest-ever World Cup in 2026.

At a meeting of the FIFA Council in Kigali, Rwanda, it will be confirmed that there will be 104 games in 2026 instead of the 64 games which were played in Qatar last year.

The extra 40 games are needed because the tournament is expanding from 32 to 48 teams.

The 2026 tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada will have 12 groups of four teams. The top two teams will advance to a round of 32 with the eight best third-placed teams.

FIFA had been considering a format of 12 groups of three teams, but the excitement generated by the traditional four-team group format used in the Qatar World Cup has helped to convince the FIFA Council to stick with four-team groups.

The combined number of rest, release and tournament days remains the same as previous World Cups in 2010, 2014 and 2018 – 56 days.

It means teams reaching the final will now have to play eight matches, rather than the seven played by Qatar 2022 finalists Argentina and France.

The final in the United States is due to be on Sunday July 19, 2026.

PFA CEO Maheta Molango has criticised the FIFA proposals. He said: “Fundamentally, the football calendar needs a complete reset.

“The expanded World Cup format being announced for 2026 means that, yet again, more games are being forced into an already overcrowded schedule.

“It is right that FIFA have listened to players’ concerns and announced a working group to address the critical issues surrounding fixture congestion and player welfare.

“However, it’s very difficult to see how that aligns with the constant expansion of the domestic and international calendar.

“We know that the current workload players face is having an ongoing impact on their wellbeing, both on and off the pitch. We can’t simply push them until they break.”

Why FIFA had a ‘rethink’ over World Cup format

Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol:

“FIFA had a problem because this is going to be the first World Cup with 48 teams so they were trying to work out how it was going to be organised.

“It was going to be 16 groups of three teams and you could have had the situation where two teams would have only played two games before being knocked out and going home.

“FIFA had a rethink, which was accelerated by the World Cup in Qatar. FIFA thought the Qatar World Cup was exciting – there was so much jeopardy and so much at stake.

“That’s why they have had a look at it again and at this FIFA Council meeting in Rwanda, it is going to be officially approved.

“A lot of traditionalists will say they are unhappy with 48 teams because it is too many teams and the quality is going to suffer. It is also bad for the environment having more teams flying around Mexico, Canada and the USA.

“The other argument, though, is that FIFA is made of 211 different countries and of those countries only 78 have ever played in the World Cup, so they have been lobbying FIFA to say they need to have a chance to play in the World Cup otherwise their standards of football aren’t going to improve.

“If you look at the slot allocation, at the World Cup in Qatar we only had five countries from Africa even though there are 54 African countries that are members of FIFA.

“Their slot allocation is going to go up from five to nine, there are now going to be eight teams from Asia, six teams from Concacaf so if you take off your blinkers and look at football not just from a western European perspective, the rest of the world – well, the people I speak to – do like that the World Cup will be expanded and it really will be the World Cup.”

FIFA expands Club World Cup and approves new tournament

Also approved by the FIFA Council in Rwanda were plans for an expanded Club World Cup which will see Chelsea play in the first edition in the summer of 2025.

The four Champions League winners from 2021 to 2024 will qualify for the tournament, which guarantees a place for Chelsea and last year’s victors Real Madrid, plus the 2023 and 2024 winners.

Twelve of the 32 teams taking part will be from Europe and the tournament will be held every four years. The remaining eight European places are likely to be allocated according to UEFA club co-efficient rankings.

This year’s seven-team tournament is being held in Saudi Arabia in December.

Real Madrid won the 2022 Club World Cup in Morocco last month, beating Al-Hilal 5-3 in the final of the seven-team tournament.

In addition, the FIFA Council also unanimously approved plans for a new annual competition between the champions of its six confederations.

The first competition will be held next year and will feature the Champions League winners playing the winners of the international confederations play-offs.

This competition will replace the current seven-team format of the Club World Cup, meaning the 2023 Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia will be the last in the current format.

The new – and as yet unnamed – competition will begin in 2024, followed by the reworked Club World Cup a year later.

With Chelsea guaranteed a Champions League quarter-final spot, and with Manchester City and Liverpool still battling to make it through, find out when the draw for the last eight and the semi-finals will take place, and who will be involved.

Chelsea are the only English side through to the quarter-finals so far after overcoming Borussia Dortmund 2-1 on aggregate in the last 16.

Manchester City and Liverpool are the other Premier League teams who can still reach the quarters, with both teams playing their second legs this week.

City face RB Leipzig on Tuesday at the Etihad Stadium after Pep Guardiola’s side were held to a 1-1 draw in Germany in the first leg.

Liverpool, meanwhile, face a Herculean task in their bid to overturn a 5-2 first-leg deficit against defending champions Real Madrid, with the second leg taking place on Wednesday at the Bernabeu.

But Tottenham will not be involved in the draw after limping out to AC Milan 1-0 on aggregate.

Bayern Munich and Benfica are also through, with Inter Milan or Porto and Eintracht Frankfurt or Napoli hoping to join them in the last eight.

Here’s all you need to know ahead of the quarter-final and semi-final draws…

When are the quarter-final and semi-final draws?

The draws take place at 11am UK time on Friday, March 17 in Nyon, Switzerland at UEFA’s headquarters.

You can follow the draw with Sky Sports’ live blog, so you can keep across everything right here.

How do the draws work?

The eight last-16 winners are involved in an open quarter-final and semi-final draw.

There are no seedings and no country protection, so clubs can face opposition from the same country. They can also draw teams they previously played in the group stage.

A final draw will also take place to determine the ‘home’ side for administrative reasons for the showpiece event in Istanbul, Turkey on June 10.

Who will be in the quarter-final and semi-final draws?

• AC Milan
• Bayern Munich
• Benfica
• Chelsea
• Manchester City or RB Leipzig (1-1 after first leg)
• Napoli or Eintracht Frankfurt (2-0 after first leg)
• Porto or Inter Milan (0-1 after first leg)
• Real Madrid or Liverpool (5-2 after first leg)

When are the quarter-finals?

The first legs of the quarter-finals will be played Tuesday, April 11 and Wednesday, April 12.

The second legs will be played Tuesday, April 18 and Wednesday, April 19.

When are the semi-finals?

The first legs of the semi-finals will be held on May 9 and 10, and the second legs on May 16 and 17.

When is the final?

The final takes place on June 10 at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.

Chelsea are a dangerous animal, they’ve got some unbelievable players and they just need to click – at times against Leicester they did.

Bad teams don’t score the goals like they did, two of them were unbelievable. Kai Havertz’s flick has to go down as one of the goals of the season, you’re not seeing that on a Sunday morning.

It was an outstanding week for Chelsea, with wins over Leeds, Dortmund and Leicester, and now with Everton at home next they can get on a roll. Football is a funny game how it can change so quickly, you’ve only got to look at Liverpool losing at Bournemouth.

Graham Potter has switched to three at the back and it’s working. It’s taken a while for him to get it right but it’s 100 per cent better than with four in defence.

And he still hasn’t got Reece James. Ruben Loftus-Cheek filled in for him on Saturday and played well but when James comes back you’ve got one of the best of the business along with Ben Chilwell on the left. You’ve got to get your wing-backs high up the pitch and James and Chilwell are very good attacking players.

Mateo Kovacic has come back recently, I’m a massive fan of him, and playing alongside Enzo Fernandez in midfield. Then Potter can pick any three from seven options up front that can cause havoc to anybody. Don’t forget, Thiago Silva isn’t playing either. James and Silva are Chelsea’s two best players.

Marc Cucurella has done really well recently. Sometimes he can dive in, if you’re doing that in his position on the left of the three then there’s a safety net behind you if you don’t win the ball. For all three of the central defenders, there’s a safety net for them from each other.

If the Champions League quarter-final draw goes their way, bar Man City and Bayern Munich, I don’t think too many teams will want to play Chelsea. If they don’t meet those two then I think they’ll get through to the semi-finals.

Trossard an ‘unbelievable’ signing for just £27m

Arsenal’s performance in the first half at Fulham was mind-blowing. It was like watching Man City in their pomp and this was against a good Fulham team. It was scary. It was bordering on ridiculous.

It felt like they had at least two more players on the pitch but the thing that will win Arsenal the league is starting matches well. I watched them at Leicester when they were under pressure for a result and they started well and were great.

Then they were at home against Bournemouth and start poorly. Against Fulham they start well and it’s a walk in the park. I don’t see how they’re going to be stopped if they start well in matches.

Gabriel Jesus coming back is a bit of a problem for Arsenal because the lad will want to play – he didn’t sign to be a bit-part player like he was at Man City. It will cause problems in time but at the moment it’s like another signing.

Leandro Trossard could play for Man City. It’s an unbelievable signing for £27m. When his agent said to him he was going to Arsenal for that fee he must have thought, ‘Is that all I’m worth?!’

The lad could go in the Man City team on Tuesday and you wouldn’t know any different, he’s that good. But Arsenal play like Man City, if you put them in a light blue kit you would think they are. You don’t get bigger compliments than that.

Odegaard having bigger impact than De Bruyne

As we talk today, Martin Odegaard is the best midfielder in the Premier League. He has more effect on the Arsenal team than Kevin de Bruyne has on Man City. We have to talk in moments and, in the present, Odegaard is number one without a doubt. I’m not saying he’s a better player than De Bruyne, but right now Odegaard’s having more of an impact.

Palace away is a difficult game but Leipzig away is a bigger match for Man City. If Man City win the league and not the Champions League then it’s not been a great season. They bought Erling Haaland in to win the Champions League, not the Premier League for the fifth time in six years. And De Bruyne will play against Leipzig.

The title race will come down to the fixtures. Whoever plays first on a weekend will have a massive advantage. If Arsenal had played first against Fulham and beat them like they did, they would have been eight points clear of Man City, who had to go to Crystal Palace.

City play first, they win and then Arsenal are only two points clear, and their game becomes more difficult at Fulham.

If Arsenal play first and they keep going eight points clear with City needing to win to make it five, before you know it, it will take its toll. It happened with Tottenham and Leicester in 2016.

If Arsenal win their next two games against Palace and Leeds, I don’t see how they can be stopped. They’ll be five points clear at least with eight games to go. They’ve got to play Man City but they’ll have to win that game.

Liverpool have no chance at Real

Managers have to keep level-headed and so do players. Liverpool had a great result against Manchester United that will put them in the history books but then you’ve got to turn up and perform at Bournemouth.

When you watch the Bournemouth game you think, ‘What chance have Liverpool got at Real Madrid?’ Needing to score three, at least, is a big ask, it would be one of the greatest Champions League comebacks of all time. Barcelona did it against PSG but that was at home. This is away at the cup holders. If it was two goals then you never know, but three…I give them no chance.

This is why wherever you go in the world, the Premier League is being shown because one of the bottom three teams can beat one of the top teams. You never get it where Bournemouth rest everybody for next week’s game because they don’t think they’ll beat Liverpool. That doesn’t happen in the Premier League and that’s why it’s the best league in the world.

Tottenham have won five of their last seven in the Premier League. They had a shocking result in midweek against AC Milan but that’s football. They’ve bounced back to beat a poor Nottingham Forest away side who are chalk and cheese home and away. The top four is in their hands and if they win their next two games against Southampton and Everton they’ll be hard to chase down.

Chelsea completed a perfect week by earning a third consecutive win in an entertaining 3-1 victory at Leicester to further ease the pressure on head coach Graham Potter.

The Blues progressed into the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday with a turnaround victory over Dortmund following a much-needed three points against Leeds last weekend.

Their good form continued when Ben Chilwell fired them into an early lead against his former club, but Patson Daka equalised with a wonderful effort from 25 yards which flew into the bottom corner.

However, Chelsea went ahead again in first-half injury-time as Kai Havertz lobbed goalkeeper Danny Ward before Mateo Kovacic wrapped things up with a volley as Leicester fell to a fourth consecutive defeat, with centre-back Wout Faes sent off late on.

How Chelsea and Leicester delivered a thriller

Chilwell sparked a chaotic first half with a perfect volley from inside the Leicester area which beat Ward at his near post, and the former Leicester left-back enjoyed celebrating in front of the home supporters, who booed his and Wesley Fofana’s every touch.

Leicester should have levelled three minutes later when Daniel Amartey managed to head wide from close range when unmarked from James Maddison’s devilish delivery, with Gary Lineker watching on in the stands after being stood down from his Match of the Day duties.

The hosts were soon let off as Joao Felix brought down a floated pass from Havertz and then dinked the ball over Ward, only to see it hit the right post. Two minutes later, Leicester hit the woodwork too through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s deflected effort which came back off the crossbar.

Felix thought he had scored Chelsea’s second at the end of a lovely move that saw Mykhailo Mudryk play the ball wide to Loftus-Cheek, who delivered a low pass across for the winger to sweep home, but the VAR ruled Felix offside.

Just four minutes later, Leicester equalised when Felix dawdled and was robbed of the ball deep in the Chelsea half with it breaking for Daka, who fired superbly into the bottom right corner from outside the box.

The action continued to come with Kepa Arrizabalaga pushing away efforts from James Maddison and Kelechi Iheanacho before the former’s free-kick hit the elbow of Fofana in the area, with the VAR ruling it was not a penalty.

Havertz then received a heavy knock to his midriff from Amartey’s high boot which was also dismissed by the VAR but the striker quickly shrugged off the blow to lob Ward with a wonderful finish from Enzo Fernandez’s perfect pass.

The first chance of the second half came within 60 seconds, Ward tipping over Fofana’s header from Chilwell’s corner, but opportunities became few and far between.

Leicester went close to finding another equaliser in the 65th minute as Harry Souttar’s close-range effort was turned off the line by substitute Conor Gallagher. The hosts also saw Dewsbury-Hall miss a sitter from inside the six-yard box before Mudryk had what would have been his first Chelsea goal ruled out for offside after slotting past Ward.

But Mudryk played a key role for Chelsea’s third, cushioning Havertz’s cross for Kovacic to arrive and blast home. Leicester’s misery was compounded when Faes lunged in and received a second yellow, leaving Brendan Rodgers’ side just one point above the relegation zone.

Potter: It’s been a really good week

Chelsea head coach Graham Potter: “It’s been a team performance over the week, it takes a bit of time to develop that but the spirit of the boys is developing, it’s growing.

“The togetherness I really like, everyone supporting each other, fighting to play and ready to play. I’m delighted for the players, it’s been a tough period but this week has been a positive one.

“It’s been a really good week, three wins. It started with a determined performance against Leeds, then Dortmund and to back it up today is really impressive from the players because it isn’t easy.

“We’ve had a good week. We were a few centimetres away from a couple of more goals ourselves, they gave everything as well. It was a game in the balance and it was our quality which saw us over the line.”

Rodgers: We need to rediscover fight and resilience

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers: “If you think about earlier in the season, we had six games and one point. We have shown we can fight and we have a resilience and that’s what’s going to be needed now.

“One thing we are is very much together. We’ll keep fighting and there are still more points to play for. You want your team to be supported at home and the crowd behind them.

“We have to get through that and get the points. The supporters are disappointed we didn’t get the result but it doesn’t affect me.

“It (defeat) was harsh on the team. When it gets to 3-1 and you are down to 10 men in the last five minutes players of that quality can keep the ball from you, so you come off a bit dejected.

“We fought our way back into the game and we finished the first half really well but then a fraction of just (being) passive and you give players of that quality that space they can use it.”

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Opta stats: Chelsea stop away day rot

• Leicester have lost their 16th Premier League game of the season, no team has more defeats in the competition in 2022-23 (Southampton also 16), while manager Brendan Rodgers has suffered as many as 16 defeats in a single league season for the first time.
• Chelsea have ended a run of eight Premier League away games without a victory (D4 L4), with this their first win on the road since a 2-0 victory over Aston Villa in October 2022. They’ve scored three goals on the road in the competition for the first time since May 2022 (3-0 vs Leeds).
• Leicester City conceded first for the ninth consecutive Premier League game, doing so 14 times in total this season, only Southampton (18) and West Ham (17) have shipped the opening goal of the game more often in 2022-23.
• Brendan Rodgers took charge of his 150th Premier League game as Leicester manager (W64 D29 L57) – only Martin O’Neil has managed more games in the competition for Foxes (152), while only Claudio Ranieri (44% – 28/63) has a better win percentage than Rodgers (43%).

What’s next?

Saturday 18th March 5:00pm


Kick off 5:30pm

Chelsea return to Stamford Bridge when relegation-threatened Everton come to London on Saturday March 18, live on Sky Sports.

Leicester will aim to ease their bottom three worries when they travel to Brentford next Saturday with kick-off at 3pm.