Just five miles separate the birthplaces of Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers, the England team-mates who have combined friendship with a local rivalry that could end up with them battling for a place in the Champions League final this season.
Both have quarter-finals to get through but could face each other in a semi-final that would see Bellingham, the former Birmingham City midfielder, play at Aston Villa for the first time. “I don’t think he’d enjoy going to Villa Park much,” admitted Rogers. “He’s played everywhere but he’s never played there.”
Meeting to contest a place in the biggest final in club football would see the pair come full circle after facing each other in youth football around the Birmingham area while Rogers was at West Bromwich Albion.