Real Madrid v Bayern Munich: Champions League quarter-final first leg…

⚽ Updates from this 8pm kick-off at the Bernabéu
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Harry Kane, who was doubtful for the game, is in the Bayern XI. We’ll have the full team news in a second.

Hello, buenas noches, guten abend, and welcome to live coverage of Real Madrid v Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals. Just as everybody needs a bosom for a pillow, so every football competition needs a clásico: an impossible-to-overhype-but-let’s-bloody-well-try contest between two giant teams. Hell, last weekend there were four clásicos on Hackney Marshes alone!*

Real Madrid have made three changes to the squad that beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Etihad, bringing in Andriy Lunin, Alvaro Carreras and Kylian Mbappé while dropping Thibaut Courtois, Fran Garcia and Brahim Diaz. Jude Bellingham remains on the bench after his recent injury return. Bayern Munich have also made changes, with Manuel Neuer and Harry Kane replacing Jonas Urbig and Nicolas Jackson, as they prepare to face the Spanish giants at 8pm kick‑off.

Bayern Munich have made the trip to the capital of Spain this evening, where they face Real Madrid in the first-leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final which starts at 21:00 CET.

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With around an hour to go before kickoff, the confirmed Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich lineups have been announced and you can find the official starting XIs below.

Confirmed Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich lineups:

Real Madrid starting XI (4-4-2): Lunin – Alexander-Arnold, Rüdiger, Huijsen, Carreras – Valverde, Pitarch, Tchouameni, Güler – Vinicius Jr, Mbappé

Bayern Munich starting XI (4-2-3-1): Neuer – Laimer, Upamecano, Tah, Stanisic – Kimmich, Pavlovic – Olise, Gnabry, Díaz – Kane

⚽ Champions League updates from 8pm BST
⚽ Real Madrid v Bayern Munich – live updates
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Arsenal: Mikel Arteta has insisted that his side will not panic after losing successive games for the first time this season but admitted that they must rediscover their identity to get their campaign back on track.

The Premier League leaders saw their hopes of an unprecedented quadruple crumble with defeats by Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and the Championship side Southampton in the FA Cup.

No. I think when you have the opportunity that we have, that has to be taken through excitement, through preparing yourself in the best possible way, focusing on the present and on the things that we have to do. And especially in our identity, it’s very clear what is taking us on the way to where we are, and that’s where we have to focus.

There are parts and identities created by behaviours, not with words in the world, or with things that I want to achieve. And we have so many facts in the areas that, in our opinion, make us the team and the club that we are.

I’m going to do something that I almost never do: link to a talkSPORT article. I know, I feel gross about it too, feel free to not click the link. But it’s also interesting — apparently noted worm-muncher and former Burnley, Everton and Nottingham Forest boss Sean Dyche was never approached by Tottenham Hotspur to become their next manager, and even if they had approached him, he would’ve turned them down.

Dyche was a popular potential managerial candidate amongst a certain segment of Spurs fan after Igor Tudor’s tenure was mutually terminated, for a variety of reasons — he’s a well known figure amongst Premier League players, he plays a style of football that while not exactly glamorous has been known to keep struggling Premier League clubs afloat, and also he was available. I don’t think most Spurs fans wanted Dyche because they thought he would be a good long-term manager for Tottenham Hotspur (his style of football is pretty far from the “Audere est facere” style Spurs fans are clamoring for), but there was a vocal segment that thought he could do enough to keep Spurs from the drop.

But Dyche, speaking on talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show, said that while he didn’t laugh off the links to Tottenham when they emerged, he was never going to take the job.

“I didn’t laugh it off by the way, I told a true story. I spend a lot of time in London, not working but socially and I just happened to be here at the same time the Tottenham job opened. Once you’re in the city, people put two and two together and it was never about getting drawn into the rumours.

“I’m telling the truth, there was a lot of speculation and talk and I was playing it down correctly so. It’s no disrespect to anyone, it’s a brilliant club and I’ve said that but it’s nonsense to pre-suppose an outcome just because you’re in the same city.

…

“Obviously in the career I have, it does pay well but I wouldn’t go in there looking for money. They could offer me a massive amount of money, I’m sure they’re capable of it and allegedly they’ve offered [Roberto] De Zerbi a massive amount of money.

“It would have been about what are [Spurs] going to help me gain as a human being. What would I gain? Let’s say you go in there and get the job done, then next season if you’re not in the top four and the football’s not what they want, then you’re rubbish and they want you out.

“So you’re not going to gain a lot there, are you? And that’s if you get the job done, because it’s not easy. If you don’t get the job done, then somehow it’s on my neck that I took Tottenham down. That ain’t good for me as a human, this isn’t even about football at this point. Then you get some money and I go, I’m not thirsty for that. I’ve got some money.”

He’s not wrong, and that sentiment is probably a wall that Spurs ran into with any number of candidates. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for him to take the job. At best he keeps Spurs up and then ends up being a terrible fit for the style of football they want to play. At worst he fails, Spurs get relegated, and then he’s castigated for failing and is likely out of a job anyway. It’s the definition of a poisoned chalice.

It’s probably why they decided to throw a bunch of money at someone like Roberto De Zerbi, whom, ethical considerations aside, is a talented manager and clearly decided the money was worth sticking around Spurs even if they do get relegated. We’ve said what we want to say about De Zerbi’s sexual assault apologia and his non-apology for defending Mason Greenwood (and no, I won’t be shutting up about it), but in some ways De Zerbi makes more sense than hiring someone like Dyche, the very definition of a short-term appointment for a club like Tottenham.