Football: City's next challenge at Spurs' new stadium

A general view of New Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Photo / Getty Images

With the defence of their domestic titles seeming a formality, Barcelona and Juventus can now focus on the Champions League.

For the rest of the quarter-finalists, this period is far more challenging and will stretch their squads while ambitions at home and abroad are juggled. Here is a look at this week's first legs, being played on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Tottenham-Manchester City

Just like last season, Manchester City come up against Premier League rivals in the quarter-finals. Different this time is not only the opponent — Tottenham rather than Liverpool — but also the surroundings. City will be Tottenham's second opponents in their new 62,000-capacity stadium in north London tomorrow.

"I don't care about the stadium," City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne said. "I care about the team we play. Everybody talks about the stadium like it's something special. Everybody has a stadium. Everybody has supporters."

If De Bruyne sounds irritated, it's not because of the state of City's campaign. Pep Guardiola's team remains in a quadruple chase after reaching the FA Cup final with a victory over Brighton on Sunday.

The Champions League is the one major honour to elude City in the 11 years since Abu Dhabi investment transformed the club. City haven't even reached a final, falling at this stage last year to Liverpool, but are the competition's top scorers this season with 26 goals.

Tottenham are in a scrap just to qualify for a fourth successive season in the Champions League by finishing in the Premier League's top four. With a squad lacking reinforcements in the past year due to stadium building costs, Tottenham are third.

Liverpool-Porto

While Liverpool will be without banned right back Andy Robertson, Porto have two key players ruled out through suspension: playmaker Hector Herrera and Pepe, the centre back who won three Champions League titles with Real Madrid.

Porto last reached the quarter-finals four years ago and are chasing their first semifinal appearance since winning the Champions League under the then-emerging manager Jose Mourinho in 2004.

Fuelled by Mohamed Salah's goals, Liverpool reached last season's final, where the five-time European champions were beaten by Real Madrid.

The forward has rediscovered his scoring touch in time for the visit of Porto to Anfield tomorrow, netting for the first time in nine games in a victory at Southampton on Saturday. That took Liverpool to the top of the Premier League ahead of Manchester City. Porto are being kept off top spot in Portugal by Benfica due to an inferior goal difference.

Manchester United-Barcelona

The quarter-finals have been the end of Barcelona's Champions League journey for three successive seasons since winning a fifth European title in 2015. United are in the last eight for the first time since 2014, when defeat helped spell the end of David Moyes' reign as Alex Ferguson's immediate successor.

Victory at Paris Saint-Germain last month, though, contributed to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being handed the United job on a three-year contract.

United host Barcelona at Old Trafford on Thursday with the luxury of having not played for more than a week since an April 3 loss to Wolverhampton. Barcelona opened an 11-point Spanish league lead over Atletico with a 2-0 win on Sunday.

Ajax-Juventus

Juventus are hopeful Cristiano Ronaldo will play some part in Thursday's match after injuring a right thigh muscle on Portugal duty last month. The forward participated in training yesterday but Juventus will take no risks on the fitness of the hat-trick scorer from the last-16 second leg against Atletico Madrid last month.

- AP