We have our final four.
Two Spanish teams, two English teams.
Two former Champions League winners, two looking for their maiden win in the competition.
Those four teams are: Liverpool (of course), Man City (of course), Real Madrid (of course) and Villarreal (of…what? How?).
So with the semi-finalists set, we at 90min thought ‘why not rank them from worst to best?’
And that’s exactly what we’ve done.
Hands up if you thought Villarreal would knock Juventus and Bayern Munich out of the Champions League?
Put your hands down you big liar, you’re not impressing anybody.
It is incredible that the Yellow Submarine have made it this far into the UEFA Champions League.
Huge credit to Unai Emery (and his corner kicks), friend of 90min Arnaut Danjuma, and that watertight defence.
Superb stuff.
Real Madrid have been dragged to the Champions League semi-finals by two of the greatest footballers of the last 25 years.
One is the best 36+ year-old footballer that’s ever played the game (Luka Modric), the other is the current best footballer in the world (Karim Benzema).
Sure, some other players in the starting XI leave a bit to be desired, but when you have two players this good in your ranks, you can beat any team on any given Tuesday…or Wednesday.
Essentially 1b on this list, because as we’ve seen, there isn’t much to separate Liverpool and Man City this season.
Despite probably having, pound for pound, a better starting XI, we’ve opted to put Jurgen Klopp’s side second on this list.
And for a very simple reason: for about 40 minutes last Sunday, Man City looked a much, much more accomplished football team than Liverpool.
1a on this is Man City. As they should be.
Although they can be quite tedious to watch at times – they are, let’s not kid ourselves – you can’t deny just how effective the way they play the game is.
They’re extraordinarily effective.
Surely, surely, this is the year they finally get over the hump and win the Champions League.