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Real Madrid to Face Man City in Champions League Quarterfinals 

A display board shows the matches scheduled during the draw for the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
A display board shows the matches scheduled during the draw for the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
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Real Madrid to Face Man City in Champions League Quarterfinals 

A display board shows the matches scheduled during the draw for the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, 15 March 2024. (EPA)
A display board shows the matches scheduled during the draw for the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, 15 March 2024. (EPA)

Real Madrid and Manchester City will meet in a heavyweight Champions League quarterfinal between the past two winners and the only two teams to win all six group games in this season’s competition.

Madrid will host the first leg on April 9 or 10 and the return will be the week after in Manchester.

Kylian Mbappé’s path to a first Champions League title with Paris Saint-Germain in his farewell season there will next go through Barcelona. PSG hosts the first leg.

Arsenal was drawn to play the first leg at home against Bayern Munich, whose star striker Harry Kane will go back to north London after leaving the Gunners' archrival Tottenham this offseason.

Atletico Madrid was paired with Borussia Dortmund in the other game.

UEFA also made the draw for the semifinals which ensured Mbappé and PSG cannot meet Real Madrid — the team he is expected to join in the summer — until the final.

That draw arguably put the four strongest teams in the same half.

The winner between Real Madrid and Man City will be away in the first leg against Arsenal or Bayern.

Atletico or Dortmund will host the first leg against PSG or Barcelona.

There was a familiar and powerful look to the draw. It featured five European champions — who have combined to win 27 of the previous 68 titles — and three beaten finalists: Arsenal, Atletico and PSG.

The semifinals are played between April 30 and May 8. The final is on June 1 at Wembley Stadium in London.

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China's State Media, Netizens Rally Around Pan after Claims 100m Swim not 'Humanly Possible'

China's Pan Zhanle takes part in warm up prior to an evening finals session of the swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on August 1, 2024. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)
China's Pan Zhanle takes part in warm up prior to an evening finals session of the swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on August 1, 2024. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)
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China's State Media, Netizens Rally Around Pan after Claims 100m Swim not 'Humanly Possible'

China's Pan Zhanle takes part in warm up prior to an evening finals session of the swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on August 1, 2024. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)
China's Pan Zhanle takes part in warm up prior to an evening finals session of the swimming event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Paris La Defense Arena in Nanterre, west of Paris, on August 1, 2024. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)

China's state media, athletes and netizens rallied to support Olympic swimming champion Pan Zhanle after critics including an Australian swim commentator said his world record swim in the 100 meters freestyle was not "humanly possible".
Pan smashed his own 100 meters freestyle world record, shaving 0.40 seconds off the previous mark he set at the World Championships in Doha in February, to humble rivals including Australia's Kyle Chalmers and Romania's David Popovici.
The 19-year old Pan finished in 46.40 seconds to take China's first swimming gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games. His win came after he "completed rigorous doping test programs prior to and during the games with zero positive results," the China Daily said on Friday.
According to Reuters, Pan said he took 21 doping tests from May to July prior to the games. "I cooperated with all the testing procedures and stayed confident that I am competing fair and clean," he told the newspaper.
"I did a lot of aerobics and endurance training to strengthen my push and kick in the final split. We have also adopted a scientific underwater monitoring and analyzing system to review our techniques and strokes, so that we can train better and more effectively."
Australian coach and commentator Brett Hawke posted on his Instagram that "It's not humanly possible to beat that field" and that the swim was "not real life. Not in that pool, against that field."
Hawke's comments were widely shared on China's Weibo platform with one user commenting: "It's so cool to see them incompetent, angry and breaking their defenses."
"He is praising us, saying that position is impossible but sorry we did it," said another.
The Chinese swim team has been under intense scrutiny since revelations in April that 23 of the country's swimmers tested positive for a banned heart medication in 2021 but were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen, and an independent review backed WADA's handling of the case.
A World Aquatics audit concluded there was no mismanagement or cover-up by the governing body. Pan's name was not among the Chinese swimmers listed in the reports by the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD.
"The Chinese swimming team underwent more tests in two weeks than foreign athletes did in an entire year," China's Global Times Newspaper wrote. Chinese swimmer Zhang Yufei, who won the bronze medal in the women's 200 meter butterfly final, responded to questions about Pan during a press conference on Thursday.
"Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim so fast? Why didn't anyone dare to question Phelps when he won?"