Open Thread: March 18, 2022

The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, Kung_Fu_Zizou, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

Do not miss: The UCL draw is today

This season UCL quarter-finals, semi-finals and final draw is happening today at 12 PM CET. It will be live-streaming in UEFA.tv.

From the UCL website:

The draw will set the ties for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and a draw will also be held to determine the ‘home’ team for the final, for procedural reasons.

The draws are open, so there is no seeding or country protection. Any team can be drawn against any other team. The first team drawn plays its first match at home, against the second team drawn.

Updates ahead of El Clásico

Benzema and Mendy trained inside facilities yesterday and both will undergo medical tests today. Per Marca, Mendy’s injury is a recurring one. It’s the same injury he received vs Elche on 23th January. Nacho will replace Mendy vs Barcelona.

In the game, Real player will wear the Adidas’ Special Kit to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the club. Y-3 is a collaboration between Adidas and Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto (who designed the famous 14/15 Dragon Kit). Y stands for the designer’s name and 3 represents adidas’ three signature stripes. Barcelona will use theirs “Senyera kit”