Real Madrid and Juventus look like favorites in the semifinal series of confrontations with Atletico Madrid and Monaco not only because of their story but also because of the class.
The White Ballet, however, has still occasions for joy. Every time the Spaniards have eliminated Bayern Munich from the tournament, they got the trophy. In a total of 14 finals played, they lost only three - against Inter Milan, Benfica, and Liverpool.
Juventus is at the other pole. In a total of 8 battles for the trophy, the Bianconeri have won only 2 and skipped Barcelona, losing the direct match.
This year, the team of Real has a great chance to become the first team to defend the trophy. The task of Cristiano Ronaldo and friends is not very good, but the Whites have had 27 semi-finals in the tournament and in 14 of the cases they continued forward. Atletico has been in this phase 5 times and got 3 finals - all lost.
Juve was at the semi-finals 11 times and lost only 3 times as long as the balance of Monaco is 1:1. In 2003, the French played the final, lost with 0:3 from Porto, led by Jose Mourinho back then.
