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Teams from four different countries will line up in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals for the first time in six years, with Italy’s Internazionale Milano against Spain’s Barcelona on April 20 and 28, and France’s Olympique Lyonnaise tackling Germany’s Bayern Munchen on April 21 and 27.

Notable for their absence are teams from England’s Premier League, with the dismissals of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool in this season’s competition ending a golden era of English dominance.

If any one team has the greatest incentive to reach the final in the Santiago Bernabeau stadium in Madrid on June 22, it must be Barcelona, who could then retain on home soil the trophy they won in last year’s final against Manchester United in Rome.

Not only that but the Bernabeau, capacity 80,354, is the home of Real Madrid, who Barcelona beat 2-0 at the weekend to go six points clear of their great rivals at the top of the Spanish table. After this crucial win in the league, where better to rub Real Madrid’s noses a second time in weeks than on their home turf by winning Europe’s greatest club competition?

Barcelona has a handicap for the semi-final with midfielder Andras Iniesta likely to miss most of his side’s end-of-season run to a second Spanish league/European Champions double in two years. The Spain international suffered an injury in training and underwent tests that showed he had suffered a total rupture of a biceps muscle in his leg.

He will be sidelined for up to a month and is naturally eager to feature in Spain’s first World Cup game against Switzerland on June 16. He may be ready for the European Champions league final on May 22.

Standing in the way is Inter Milan, whose Portuguese coach José Morinho, having overcome former employers Chelsea in the previous round, will again renew old acquaintances in the last four.

Morinho, who has now led three clubs to this stage of the competition – FC Porto, Chelsea and Inter – worked under Sir Bobby Robson at Barcelona’s Camp Nou during the 1990s and has twice pitted his wits against the European champions this season alone.

A 0-0 draw and a 2-0 defeat in this year’s comp mean Inter have yet to score against Barcelona in four UEFA Champions League attempts.

Several players in this semi-final are one booking away from a suspension: Inter quartet Thiago Motta, Maicon, Dejan Stankovic and Javier Zanetti, plus Barcelona’s Carles Puyol.

Lengthy waits have been ended by Bayern Munich’s and Lyon’s appearances in the second semi-final. Not since Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s great 2001/02 adventure has a German side made the last four, while France has been without semi-final representation since AS Monaco FC in 2003/04.

Lyon crashed three times at the quarter-final stage while winning seven French Ligue 1 titles from 2002-2008. This is the first time they have reached the semis. Bayern are appearing for the first time since lifting the Champions League title in 2001. That campaign saw two group-stage clashes with Lyon, the respective hosts prevailing 3-0 in France and 1-0 in Germany.

So, the proverbial stage is set and bet365 bookmakers are joining the action with a Euro Soccer accumulator offer that includes the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the Champions League. So you can now earn a bonus of up to 100% on your returns if you place accumulators on the Premier League (England), Serie A (Italy), Primera Liga (Spain), Budesliga 1 (Germany) or Champions League. Place a pre-match accumulator of three or more selections combining teams in any of these competitions and if successful bet365 will add the following bonuses to your returns:

Trebles, 5% bonus; four-folds, 7.5% bonus; five-folds, 10% bonus; six-folds, 20% bonus; seven-folds, 30% bonus; eight-folds, 40% bonus; nine-folds, 50% bonus; 10-folds, 60% bonus; 11-folds, 70% bonus; 12-folds, 80% bonus; 13-folds, 90% bonus; 14-folds, 100% bonus.

Visit Bet365 online bookmakers for odds, lines, proposition bets and other wagering opportunities on these and other matches.