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Round and round again.
Bayern Munich and Real Madrid will meet in the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League for the sixth time, the first leg in Madrid on April 23. Chelsea and Atlético Madrid will play in Madrid the day before.
The German and Spanish giants have already met 20 times, a European fixture larger than any other, with Bayern tallying a 12 W, 2 D, 6 L record. The defending champions have advanced passed Real Madrid six out of the nine times the two have met in the knockout stages, including four out of five times in the semifinals. The Rekordmeister have advanced out of the semifinal 10 times out of 16 attempts.
With an already intriguing tilt comes individual match-ups that will reoccur at the World Cup. Arjen Robben agianst Sergio Ramos, Dante against Luka Modric, Philipp Lahm against Cristiano Ronaldo, Thomas Müller and Mario Götze against Pepe and Fabio Coentrao, all singular bouts on a battlefield of excellence.
The only factor up in the air now is whether Ronaldo, ruled out of the Copa del Rey final with a thigh injury, will be at a fitness level menacing enough to be the goal scoring machine he has been.
Real Madrid face Almeria and Osasuna as part of a tight domestic race in Liga BBVA, with a Copa del Rey final against Barcelona in between. Bayern have Dortmund on the docket before the DFB-Pokal semifinal against 1. FC Kaiserslautern and another irrelevant league match against Eintracht Braunschweig.