El Classico on the card after CL semifinal draw

MADRID: The pairing of Barcelona with Bayern Munich and Real Madrid with Borussia Dortmund in Friday's Champions League semi-final draw has left Spain dreaming of an El Clasico final at Wembley in May.

A completely open draw in Nyon meant that Barca and Madrid could have been paired together in the last four for the second time in three seasons, but having both drawn German opposition they could now meet in the final for the first time.

"A Madrid-Barca final. The dream final. These 110 years of rivalry, these last three of four years that have attracted the attention of the whole world to the Clasicos deserves something like this," enthused Alfredo Relano, editor of Madrid sports daily AS.

"A final duel in the Main Street of the town. A Champions League final at Wembley, in the 150th year of the creation of football in this same city that produced this miracle. I am dreaming."

Madrid probably emerged from the draw happiest of all the four teams involved.

"It was all that Madrid could have asked for, with the return-leg at home as well," wrote Relano.

"That is not to say I think Dortmund are a Cinderella, but among what is left, they were the preferred one."

However, Dortmund have already beaten the nine-times European Champions in the group stages of this season's competition and also managed a 2-2 draw at the Bernabeu to ensure they topped the group.

And not everyone within the Real halls is getting quite as excited as Relano.

"We respect Borussia Dortmund and I need to say that we played them twice already this season and weren't able to beat them, so eliminating them will not be easy," former Real striker and now the club's director of institutional relations Emilio Butragueno was keen to stress.

Yet, having failed at this stage of the competition against Barca and Bayern in each of the last two seasons, there is a growing expectation that Jose Mourinho's third season in Madrid could be the lucky one.

And as long as they manage to reach their first final in 11 years, there will be little concern in the Spanish capital whether the old foe they meet is from Barcelona or Bavaria.

For Barca, meanwhile, a tie with Bayern is given extra intrigue by former coach Pep Guardiola's decision to join the Bavarians at the beginning of next season.

Bayern are arguably the form team in Europe having already sealed the Bundesliga title with six games to go and they dismissed Italian champions Juventus 4-0 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

However, of more concern for Barca is in what sort of physical condition a number of their key players will be by the time the first-leg of the semi-final comes along in 11 days time.

Lionel Messi should be fit to play after not aggravating his hamstring injury in the 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday which secured Barca's passage to the semis on away goals.

At the back, though, there are more questions with Adriano suspended for the first-leg and Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano still out injured.

Yet, despite those doubts there is still the belief that with a fit Messi, Barca can return to Wembley, where they have already won European football's greatest prize on two occasions.

"There will be great players, great coaches and great fans, everything will be in a big dose," Barca sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta told the club's website.

"When you look at the squad and history of Bayern it shows that they are a great club, but when I look at ours, I see the same. It is a challenge for us." (AFP)