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Radio France Internationale
Sport

Former PSG bosses Tuchel and Ancelotti face off in Champions League last eight

Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid dispatched Paris Saint-Germain from the last-16 of the Champions League and will face defending champions Chelsea who are coached by Thomas Tuchel, another ex-PSG boss. © Montage RFI / AFP Archives

Chelsea and Real Madrid - the sides that respectively accounted for the French teams Lille and Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16 of the Champions League - were on Friday drawn to meet in the last eight of the competition.

Madrid's city rivals, Atletico, will take on last year's beaten finalists Manchester City while Liverpool face Benfica and Villareal - coached by another former PSG boss Unai Emery - will play Bayern Munich.

Chelsea beat Real Madrid in the semi-finals on the way to claiming the 2021 trophy with a 1-0 victory over Manchester City in Porto.

Thomas Tuchel led the west Londoners to their second crown in European football's most prestigious tournament in May 2021 - five months after he was dismissed by PSG.

In the summer before his departure, he had guided PSG to the 2020 final where they lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich.

Changes

Tuchel's replacement, Mauricio Pochettino, took PSG to the semis in 2021 but they were ejected in humiliating fashion from this year's tournament.

After notching up a 2-0 aggregate lead, they shipped three goals in 17 minutes at the Santiago Bernabeu to lose the two-leg tie 3-2 on aggregate.

That Carlo Ancelotti once coached PSG was further salt in the wounds.

His side will travel to London for the first leg against a Chelsea outfit that is off-field disarray after the British government placed financial sanctions on the owner Roman Abramovich over his links with the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Former Madrid player Emilio Butragueno told the Spanish broadcaster Movistar+: "We all know who Chelsea are. They won last year when we played them. They are a physically very strong team, very solid, it's going to be a tough rival."

French teams feature in Uefa's second and third tier competitions - the Europa League and the Europa Conference League.

In the Europa League, Lyon were drawn to face West Ham United in the quarter finals and Marseille - who feature in the Europa Conference League - will take on the Greek side PAOK.

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