This week, as the final eight square off in the first legs of the quarterfinals, the Champions League's true business begins.
The format has changed from previous years, with more teams remaining from Italy than any other nation and Benfica also progressing to the latter rounds.
Could there be a shock winner, and how may Chelsea and Manchester City do as the final two Premier League representatives?
Bayern Munich vs. Manchester City: Guardiola vs. Tuchel once more
For the first time since leaving Bayern Munich for Manchester City in 2016, Guardiola returns to take on his former team.
After defeating Julian Nagelsmann's Hoffenheim twice in 2018–19, he was expected to play against them again. However, the German club just fired Nagelsmann and replaced him with Thomas Tuchel, a coach who Guardiola is even more familiar with.
The managers have previously faced off ten times throughout their decade-long rivalry, with Guardiola coming out on top six times and Tuchel coming out on top three times. Those victories all occurred between 17 April and 29 May 2021.
There was a perception that Tuchel was superior to Guardiola throughout that stretch, which featured Chelsea's victories over City in the FA Cup semifinal and Champions League championship. Guardiola notoriously chose not to use a defensive midfielder in that match as a failed approach.
However, Guardiola really has a much better record with four wins and a tie in Germany, including the 2016 DFB-Pokal final, while City defeated Tuchel's Chelsea twice in the Premier League last season.
Against his former clubs, Guardiola has had mixed results. Since leaving, he has faced Barcelona four times: twice with City and twice with Bayern. He triumphed in two of them but lost the other two games by scores of 3-0 and 4-0.
Can Lampard pull a Tuchel in Real Madrid vs. Chelsea?
Chelsea had Frank Lampard as their manager to begin the 2020–21 campaign and Tuchel to complete it as they won the Champions League.
In 2022–23, Chelsea was led by Tuchel at the beginning of the season and would be led by Lampard at the conclusion in hopes of winning the Champions League.
Following the dismissals of Graham Potter, Tuchel, and short-lived temporary manager Bruno Saltor, Lampard is the fourth person to oversee Chelsea this season.
Though, unlike the others, this is his second stint in charge, he hopes to continue an uncommon club tradition by winning a European trophy in the first season of his tenure.
Even with their penchant for switching things up at the top, Chelsea's last five European championships have all been won by managers who had taken over that year.
Three of those five were taken after Christmas, while four were taken during the season.
Potter would have hoped to join that club, but he was fired last week, giving Bruno the chance to take over for a short period of time after initially planning to stay in charge until the end of the season.
It was Tuchel and the Champions League in 2022 under Potter. In January, the Germans assumed control.
Maurizio Sarri, a Chelsea manager after only one season, won the Europa League in 2019.
Rafael Benitez, a former manager of Liverpool, guided Chelsea to the 2013 Europa League after taking over as interim manager in November.
Roberto di Matteo had been their temporary manager for less than three months the previous season when he led them to Champions League victory in 2012.
And in February 2008, the late Gianluca Vialli was appointed Chelsea's player manager. That summer, he led Chelsea to a triumph in the European Cup Winners' Cup.
The 1971 Cup Winners' Cup is the only European trophy that a Chelsea manager has won after more than a year in charge—it was won by Dave Sexton.
Can Lampard, a Chelsea player who won the Champions League in 2011–12, add his name to the list?
Real Madrid, the reigning champions of Europe, stands in their way in the quarterfinals, but Chelsea has a strong history against them, having lost just once in seven encounters.
Of all the teams that have played Real at least five times in Europe, the team has the lowest percentage of losses (14% against Real).
Can Kvaratskhelia continue her incredible season against Napoli for AC Milan?
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is a wonderful throwback and something that in contemporary football appeared to be unattainable.
With all of Kvaratskhelia's football being played in the Georgian and Russian leagues in addition to two appearances in the Europa Conference League, the average football fan would not have even known his name nine months ago.
The Georgian winger is currently one of Napoli, the undisputed Serie A champions, and one of the greatest players on one of the best clubs in European football.
Kvaratskhelia leads all players in Serie A with 10 assists and 12 goals, which puts him only four goals behind the leader.
Only four other players have double digits in both goals and assist in Europe's top five leagues, including Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka, Randal Kolo Muani of Eintracht Frankfurt, and Lionel Messi and Neymar of Paris Saint-Germain.
Nobody in the Champions League has more assists than Kvaratskhelia's four.
Napoli and Kvaratskhelia will be hoping their good fortune continues with a quarterfinal matchup against AC Milan, who are 22 points below them in the standings. Milan did, however, defeat them 4-0 earlier this month.
Benfica vs. Inter Milan: Can anyone stop Schmidt's team?
You would never guess that this Benfica club sold talent this season for more over £200 million.
Star striker Darwin Nunez was the first to go to Liverpool for between £64 and £85 million, and midfielder Enzo Fernandez went to Chelsea for £107 million. This year, the club has lost almost 30 additional players.
However, they appear to be nearly unbeatable under German journeyman manager Roger Schmidt.
Since replacing the former PSV manager in the summer, they have lost just twice in 46 games across all competitions; one of those defeats came on Friday against Porto at home.
They won their Champions League group, which also included PSG and Juventus, with 13 points more than the Italians. They then thrashed Club Bruges in the round of 16, which cost Scott Parker his job.
They lead the Portuguese league by seven points over Porto as they inch closer to their first trophy since 2019.
The winner of their match against Inter will play either AC Milan or Napoli in the semifinals, leaving only Italian teams standing between them and their first European Cup final since 1990.
