The Premier League will have a representative in the semi-finals of the Champions League this season, as Liverpool and Manchester City were paired against each other in the last eight of this season's competition. The two clubs were the final names out of the draw this morning, with Andriy Shevchenko having already paired Barcelona and Roma, Sevilla with Bayern and Juve with Real Madrid in a repeat of last year's final.
The first leg of the Liverpool/City clash is at Anfield on Wednesday, April 4th with the return leg at the Etihad six days later. Both sides face high-profile Premier League games in between - Liverpool travel to Goodison for the Merseyside Derby, while City host United in the Manchester derby.
Speaking about the draw today, Jurgen Klopp described it as a dream draw...for United fans.
I didn't expect anything, I didn't wish for anything. I think it's an absolute dream draw....for Man United fans. I really don't mind. I knew it would be difficult and that's difficult. But the good news is, for Man City it's difficult too. I saw [Man City Director, Txiki] Begiristain's face and it didn't look like it was Christmas. It's the last eight in Europe, and if it's easy then there's something wrong.
This is how Begiristain reacted to the draw:
Txiki not happy with the draw ? pic.twitter.com/uStrsE1ZnT
— LFCTS (@LFCTS) March 16, 2018
The Merseyside Derby has been moved to 12.30pm on the intervening Saturday, a move which has annoyed Klopp.
I am already angry, to be honest. I hear that the Premier League are putting our game against Everton at 12.30pm on Saturday. There are countries which cancel whole matchdays so their teams can play in proper shape. We play Man City on Wednesday and we have to play Everton three days later. That's not too cool, but obviously, we have to go the hard day.
