Four things to know about the Champions League semifinalists

The Champions League is down to the semifinal stage, and all four remaining teams are super clubs that have extensive wage bills. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich all rank in the top 10 when discussing average first-team wage bills across all sports. In this context, Juventus is the little club in the final four, but referring to a team that has now won four straight Serie A titles as "little" is laughable.

Anyhow, here are four things to know about the Champions League semifinalists.

1. Barcelona is more than just Messi, Suarez and Neymar.

FC Barcelona is the form team of the four with 36 wins in its last 40 matches. The Catalans have not lost in their last 16 games with 15 wins and one draw. A great deal of these impressive results are due to the commanding combination of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, the trio reaching 100 combined goals for the campaign in last week's 6-0 demolition of Getafe. Four days later, Barcelona won 8-0 away to Cordoba with the trio collecting six goals in the process. In all, Messi, Suarez and Neymar have now combined to score 108 goals.

While one could go on and on about the South American strike force, the midfield duo of Ivan Rakitic and Andres Iniesta has been key to the Catalans' catapult back to the top of Europe. In matches where Iniesta or Rakitic score this season, Barcelona holds a 100 percent win record. Even 35-year-old Xavi looks refreshed, though the maestro only figures to feature in a reserve role.

Messi, Suarez and Neymar may provide the crowd-erupting explosions in front of goal, but the midfielders are the ones lighting the fireworks.

2. Bayern Munich is in an injury crisis but Thiago alleviates some of the pain.

Pep Guardiola had Bayern Munich in position to achieve the coveted German treble, a feat only accomplished by the Bavarians in the season prior to the Spaniard's takeover. However, a bizarre penalty shootout loss to Dortmund in the German Cup semifinals destroyed that dream.

In that loss, Arjen Robben returned to the pitch following an extended stretch on the sidelines due to an abdominal injury. Unfortunately for Bayern, the Dutchman suffered a season-ending calf tear during his cameo appearance, thus rejoining injured trio Franck Ribery, David Alaba and Tom Starke. Also, Robert Lewandowski suffered a concussion, broken nose and broken jaw in a collision with Dortmund goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak. Lewandowski's involvement remains in question with the player making the ultimate decision.

Javi Martinez and Medhi Benatia appear to be back fit with Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger beyond fit and searching for form.

While Bayern may not be fully healthy and lacking speed on the wings, the recent return of Thaigo Alcantara provided Guardiola's Bayern its Barcelona heart. Bleeding Barca as a player and manager, Guardiola imported the La Liga powerhouse's precision passing and possession-dominant style to Germany with Thiago serving as his first major purchase.

At Barcelona, Thiago appeared to be the most likely candidate to take over for club legend Xavi, but Guardiola changed that narrative when he transplanted the Spaniard to Munich. Thiago has been Bayern's best player over the past few matches, and Guardiola has used the 24-year-old sparingly in Bayern's recent pair of disappointing results.

3. Real Madrid is morphing yet still relies heavily on Ronaldo.

Since losing to Barcelona on March 22, Real Madrid has won eight and drawn one across all competitions. Los Blancos survived a late scare away to Sevilla over the weekend, but Cristiano Ronaldo's hat trick helped the visitors become the first team to win in Sevilla in La Liga since February of 2014. The final Madrid goal in the exciting 3-2 encounter came off a surgical cross from Gareth Bale, as the Welshman made his return to the team following a calf problem.

Bale's return will lift the squad, while Karim Benzema faces a late fitness test but does not expect to start. Likely, Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, who has four goals in his last six games, will partner with Ronaldo in a 4-4-2 setup. Along with the change in structure, the loss of Luka Modric shifted Sergio Ramos into the midfield. Ramos has now gone from fulltime right back to fulltime center back to fulltime central midfielder. Despite his heading ability, fulltime center forward still seems like a stretch.

Despite the slew of injuries, Ronaldo continues to carry the squad with his 42 league goals, two more than Messi. Both Messi and Ronaldo sit on eight goals in the Champions League, as the Argentine and Portuguese continue to drive discussions on the best player in the sport.

4. Carlos Tevez and Arturo Vidal drive Juventus.

While Bayern, Barcelona and Madrid fill up the score sheets, Juventus has scored more than three goals in a match only three times this season. Carlos Tevez, though, is the driving force for the Italian champions in attack. The Argentine has scored 20 goals in Serie A and has six goals in the Champions League, including three in the knockout rounds. At 31 years old, Tevez looks as lethal as he ever has.

Advancing to the semifinals on an aggregate score line of 1-0 over two legs against AS Monaco hardly helped convince anyone of the team from Turin. Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal, who always offers an interesting haircut, scored from the spot in the home leg to nick the Italians through to the semifinals. Vidal also scored a match-winning goal over the weekend to secure a fourth straight Scudetto for the Italian giants.

If Juventus is to have any hope of reaching its first Champions League final since 2003, when the Italians beat Real Madrid in the semifinals, Tevez and Vidal will need to conjure a bit of South American magic. Juventus last won the Champions League in 1996.

Shahan Ahmed is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. He has previously written about the 2014 World Cup and 2013 Confederations Cup and regularly provides opinions on the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A and Spanish La Liga. Follow Shahan on Twitter: @ShahanLA and @perfectpass