Arsenal Champions League quarter-final opponents confirmed as pathway to Munich now clear

Arsenal are through to the Champions League quarter-finals for the second season running after completing a huge 9-3 aggregate victory over PSV Eindhoven. They will face Real Madrid in the last eight after a much closer last-16 tie was played out in Spain.

Carlo Ancelotti's side withstood an early blow after Conor Gallagher levelled matters inside the first minute. They progressed once more despite Vinicius Junior missing a second-half penalty with the score on the night still at 1-0. They beat their rivals in the shootout just like they did in the 2016 final.

For Arsenal, things were much more simple. Mikel Arteta's side were able to rest players from Sunday's 1-1 draw at Manchester United and ahead of a key Premier League meeting with Chelsea to come on Sunday. Oleksandr Zinchenko fired in a superb opener to further ram home the dominance across both matches.

Former Tottenham man Ivan Perisic curled in a wonderful equaliser inside 20 minutes to give something for the loud and unperturbed PSV supporters to cheer. The away side nearly took the lead on the night after David Raya tipped another effort from distance around the post.

Declan Rice made it 2-1 (9-2 on aggregate) with a powerful header after Raheem Sterling's impressive drive to get to the byline. Couhaib Driouech got PSV back on terms again, though, as he capitalised on a defensive mistake from Jorginho with a stellar finish over Raya.

Arsenal now have nearly a month to wait until they get to work on making the final four. First up is the aforementioned visit of Chelsea, then it is the international break.

Arteta will be hoping to welcome back Bukayo Saka following that with Fulham heading to north London on April 1 in the first game on the return of domestic football. Arsenal travel to Everton four days later before the first leg quarter-final match is due to be played.

It will be held at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, April 8. The return match in Madrid will be the following week on Wednesday, April 16.

Arsenal take on Brentford at home in the Premier League on Saturday, April 12, which will be between the two legs. Real, on the other hand, go to Villarreal this weekend before facing Leganes on March 29 after the international break. Real Sociedad and Valencia will also go to Santiago Bernabeau before the first leg in England.

They face Alaves in La Liga ahead of the second leg back in Spain. Madrid are currently level on points with league leaders Barcelona and have Atletico hot on their heels just one behind in third.

Elsewhere in the Champions League and Arsenal know that their potential semi-final opponents will be one of Paris Saint-Germain or Aston Villa. PSG knocked Liverpool out on penalties on Tuesday night after a 12th-minute goal from Ousmane Dembele drew Luis Enrique's team level with nothing else to separate the sides.

Villa were already 3-1 up from their first leg in Belgium and got the job done at home. Brugge were reduced to 10-men after just 16 minutes and second half goals from Marco Asensio (two) and Ian Maatsen completed a terrific display.

On the other side of the draw and Inter progressed through after a 2-1 win at Feyenoord. They were already 2-0 up on aggregate. Barcelona beat Benfica 3-1 (4-1 overall) and Bayern Munich made light work on Bayer Leverkusen, romping to a 5-0 aggregate win.

Borussia Dortmund came from behind earlier on Wednesday night to win the second leg and the tie against Lille. For now it is all eyes on Madrid.

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