Carragher, Richards and Schmeichel give their Champions League predictions

Jamie Carragher was left stunned on Tuesday night when Peter Schmeichel boldly predicted neither Liverpool nor Manchester City will make this season's Champions League final.

The two English clubs look set to go toe-to-toe for the remaining three trophies this season with a mouth-watering Premier League title showdown on Sunday, an FA Cup semi-final next weekend and the possibility of a Champions League final.

Both took major steps towards securing their place in the last four of the European competition on Tuesday with City beating Atletico Madrid 1-0 at home while Liverpool cruised past Benfica 3-1 in Lisbon.

But before the games kicked off, CBS pundits were asked to map out their predictions for how the knockout stages of the Champions League are going to go.

Carragher and Micah Richards were both in the studio while Schmeichel was pitch-side at the Etihad as he prepared to watch Pep Guardiola's City side take on their Spanish opponents.

When asked for his picks from the quarter-finals onwards Carragher, the former Liverpool defender, predicted Chelsea would beat Real Madrid, City would get the better of Atletico, Bayern Munich will knock out Villarreal and Liverpool would ease past Benfica.

He then predicted Man City will get the better of Chelsea in the final four while his former club will defeat Bayern, paving the way for a Liverpool-Man City final in Paris with, unsurprisingly, the Reds coming out on top.

Richards was in agreement with Carragher's picks through to the final when he, again unsurprisingly, claimed Guardiola's side will finally end their Champions League hoodoo and beat Liverpool in the French capital.

Carragher claimed his fellow pundits were 'obsessed with Pep' when Spanish football pundit Guillem Balague and Lianne Sanderson both predicted Man City would defeat Liverpool in the final.

But the Sky Sports pundit's exasperation went up a notch when former Manchester United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel delivered his verdict.

The Dane agreed with everybody else - except for Real Madrid beating Chelsea in their quarter-final - and predicted a final four of Real, Man City, Liverpool and Bayern.

But then he stunned his fellow pundits by claiming neither of Liverpool or City will make it to the final, leaving Real and Bayern to fight it out at the Stade de France.

'Oh behave. Honest to god. What are you talking about?', was Carragher's reaction when Schmeichel backed Bayern over Liverpool.

'Too much is going on between Man City and Liverpool,' was Schmeichel's explanation.

'Too much pressure. Real Madrid and Bayern are so far ahead in their leagues they can rest players and prepare for this. Man City and Liverpool can't. We know, we've played there, we've been there. We know how tough this period is.

'One little thing goes wrong and everything tumbles down. Bayern to win the Champions League this year.'

Once the first legs of the opening two quarter-finals were completed, Carragher was effusive in his praise of both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kevin De Bruyne.

The Liverpool full-back played an exquisite long pass to Luis Diaz, who headed the ball into the path of Sadio Mane for Liverpool's second goal of the night. It led to Carragher hailing him as the 'the pass master'.

He said:  'Trent Alexander-Arnold, the man I call the pass master.

'And that's why. Right on the money to Diaz.'

Carragher then claimed De Bruyne will go down in history as 'Manchester City’s greatest ever player' after his performance against Atletico Madrid, in which the Belgian scored the winning goal.

He added: 'He’s [Kevin De Bruyne] the best midfielder in the world. I think he’s an absolute joy to manage.

'There is never anything off the pitch. Even his interviews he comes across as very humble. He doesn’t miss games. His quality is there week in and week out.

'I think he will go down as Manchester City’s greatest ever player.'