Bayern Munich and Arsenal will play the first of this season’s Women’s Champions League quarter-final first legs as the competition reaches the knockout phase.

The group stage wound up back in December, making it along wait for the last eight to resume their respective quests for European glory.

Bayern are a growing force in Germany and Europe, reaching the semi-finals of this competition in two of the last four seasons. Arsenal, meanwhile, are only featuring in the Champions League at all for the third time since 2014 but, like Bayern, reached the quarters last season.

Arsenal topped their group earlier in the season, largely thanks to a surprise 5-1 thrashing of reigning champions Lyon. Bayern also enjoyed a strong group stage, inflicting Barcelona’s only defeat in any competition since last season’s final, but finishing second on goal difference.

Former Manchester City midfielder Georgia Stanway is a very familar face for Arsenal fans but has said she has grown and developed even more than she would have expected since moving to Bayern for a new challenge last summer.

Linda Dallmann has recently been ruled out for the rest of the season following an ankle injury suffered earlier this month. Fellow Germany international Giulia Gwinn is out with an ACL tear, but Carolin Simon is back in the squad.

Arsenal did not add veteran Jodie Taylor to their Champions League squad when she returned to the club last week – the deadline for squad additions had already passed.

Stina Blackstenius could return to the starting XI after illness in the build up to the last game against Reading just over a week ago limited her to a 30-minute cameo. Frida Maanum, Arsenal’s hero against Lyon, is likely to be back in midfield, with Leah Williamson returning to defence.

The double loss of Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema will still be felt massively. Losing versatile defender Steph Catley in recent weeks has also been a blow.

Bayern have won 12 consecutive games in all competitions coming into this one, a run which includes victories over Barcelona and domestic rivals Wolfsburg.

Arsenal have themselves come into decent form after a poor start to 2023, putting together successive wins over Chelsea, to win the Conti Cup, Liverpool and Reading.

But in Munich and Arsenal missing their two most potent goal threats, the advantage here – and perhaps for the whole tie – has to lie with Bayern. There is also the not so small matter of returning to the Allianz Arena for the first time since beating Barcelona, which will evoke fond memories.

Prediction: Bayern Munich 3-1 Arsenal

Manchester City have been pitted against Bayern Munich in a Champions League quarter-final littered with as many subplots as sublime players.

Pep Guardiola’s former employers are the only team to have won every match they’ve contested in this season’s competition. Manchester City’s Erling Haaland is the tournament’s top scorer this year but Bayern Munich can boast the leading assist-provider – although, four of Joao Cancelo’s five European assists came while he was playing for City (including two for Haaland) before arriving in Bavaria on loan in January.

The intricate web of interwoven brilliance goes on and on. However, City are still very much in a Premier League title race with Arsenal – fortunately there are no links between individuals from both clubs in that dynamic. So, where does this Champions League quarter-final between two of the competition’s favourites fit into City’s calendar?

City have a season-defining April ahead of them. The month begins with the visit of frequent title rivals Liverpool before City host the current Premier League leaders Arsenal in the final week of April.

Both legs of the Champions League quarter-final have been squeezed into the three-and-a-half weeks separating those two domestic blockbusters. City welcome Bayern Munich to the Etihad Stadium for the first leg on Tuesday 11 April, three days after travelling to Southampton and in the same week as a home game against Leicester City.

With both the Saints and Foxes embroiled in a nine-team-wide relegation scrap, City’s opening leg is sandwiched between matches against opponents fighting for every point.

Guardiola leads his team back to Bavaria on Wednesday 19 April – it will be the Catalan coach’s first match as an opposition manager in the Allianz Arena since overseeing Barcelona’s 1-1 draw against Bayern in 2009. A share of the spoils was enough for Barcelona to advance to the semi-finals after romping to a 4-0 win against Jurgen Klinsmann’s side in the first leg in Catalonia.

Four days after the knockout tie in Germany, City are back on the road with a trip to high-flying Brighton as Guardiola pits his wits against a team he has spent so much time lauding. The following Wednesday, just a week after the second leg against Bayern, City and Arsenal meet at the Etihad for a potential title decider.

The Gunners have already lost two games to City this season but were dumped out of the Europa League in the round of 16, leaving their focus solely fixed on a first league title in 19 years. City’s calendar is a little more crowded.

Man City fixture list with Bayern Munich UCL quarter finals

Guardiola was on the touchline the last time City faced Bayern Munich. However, he was in the opposite dugout as Sergio Aguero inspired the Sky Blues to a 3-2 victory from behind in the 2014 Champions League group stage.

These clubs have met each other on six occasions previous occasions, but this will be the first knockout tie contested by the pair.

As modern heavyweights of European football, Manchester City and Bayern Munich have enjoyed some wonderful tussles in recent times.

Man City are still searching for their maiden Champions League crown while Bayern are established six-time winners on the continent.

The two have been drawn together in the 2022/23 Champions League quarter-finals, pitting two of the serious contenders to win the whole thing against each other. There’s an added level of intrigue as Joao Cancelo recently moved from City to Bayern in the January transfer window on loan unexpectedly and is eligible to face his parent club.

There is not a huge amount of previous games between the two sides to draw from and they have not faced each other since 2014.

Here are all of the previous meetings between Bayern Munich and Manchester City and what went down.

The first professional meeting between the two sides was a 2011 Champions League group stage match. Jupp Heynckes was the Bayern coach and Roberto Mancini was leading City.

The two goals came from Mario Gomez either side of half-time and helped the German side top the group.

Surprisingly in the second meeting between the two sides in that group stage, it was City that ran out as winners with a 2-0 victory at the Etihad. David Silva and Yaya Toure were the goalscorers.

The group contained Napoli and Villarreal and it was the Italians who joined Bayern in the next round. City dropped into the Europa League after finishing third.

In the 2013/14 season, City and Bayern were drawn in the same group once again with the first game in Manchester. This time, Pep Guardiola was in charge of the Bavarians against Manuel Pellegrini.

Franck Ribery, Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben made it 3-0 to Bayern before Alvaro Negredo grabbed a late consolation. Jerome Boateng was also shown a late red card.

Just like in the previous group stage meeting, City won the return game.

This time, Bayern were 2-0 up after 12 minutes thanks to Muller and Mario Gotze, but goals from David Silva, Aleksandar Kolarov and James Milner secured a win for City.

Both teams progressed to the next round but it was Bayern who topped the group. Both teams had 15 points after the six games.

The 2022/23 matches will be the first knockout games between the two sides as the next two meetings were also in the stage. The following season they were in the same group and Guardiola was still at Bayern.

The first match was very tight and it was a stoppage-time winner from Boateng that secured the points for Bayern.

Sticking to the script laid out in previous seasons, City won the second game of the group stage between the two teams. Mehdi Benatia was shown a red card after just 20 minutes and Sergio Aguero scored the resulting penalty.

Surprisingly, Xabi Alonso and Robert Lewandowski scored twice before half time and it took until the 85th minute before Aguero was able to score twice more and turn the game around, even though Bayern had ten players for 70 minutes.

The win was crucial as City only scraped into the round of 16 with eight points from six games.

Man City vs Bayern Munich H2H record