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Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League round of 16 creates two intriguing ties between last year’s neutral favorites Atalanta, injured Real Madrid and this year’s surprise package Borussia Monchengladbach against the favorite Manchester City. You can catch all of the Champions League action this week, and every week, on CBS All Access. The Spaniards were decimated ahead of their trip to Italy with Karim Benzema absent for Zinedine Zidane’s men, while the Bergamo-based squad are not quite at the same octane level as last time around. Monchengladbach has been great entertainment so far this year, but now know that coach Marco Rose will be leaving, and they will travel to Budapest, Hungary, to meet a team from the city in a rush to reach the quarter-finals so let it advance on all fronts.
Here’s what you need to know about the two games.
Zidane’s real limp in shock with Atalanta
Los Blancos were slow to advance to the final stages of the Group B Champions League with a 2-0 home win over Mönchengladbach on the final matchday which ultimately earned them first place ahead of the Germans and Shakhtar Donetsk.
After an uneven start to the season, their national form has picked up in recent times, perhaps helped by a lighter schedule after a Spanish Super Copa loss to Athletic Bilbao and the Copa del Rey clash at the hands of Alcoyano in January. But injuries and physical issues have also piled up with a long list of absentees Zidane has to deal with ahead of the Gewiss stadium visit.
Karim Benzema, Sergio Ramos, Eden Hazard, Marcelo, Dani Carvajal, Federico Valverde and Rodrygo don’t even represent the full extent of the crowded treatment room at Los Merengues and it’s more about who is available than who is not. is not available.
With only Hans Hateboer missing due to a foot injury for Atalanta, La Dea has a huge chance to give themselves a chance to advance to the UCL quarter-finals for the second year in a row after a 2019-20 breakthrough. which was finally interrupted by the PSG finalists.
Real’s injury crisis is bad news for Spanish football, with La Liga clubs struggling on the continental stage this season after Barcelona and Real Sociedad suffered beating last week and Sevilla also lost at home .
While Atalanta’s advance would be unexpected, Los Blancos’ injury concerns reduce the shock value of the Italians who advance by a good margin. That’s not to say that Gian Piero Gasperini’s men wouldn’t be welcome in the bottom eight.
A city to highlight its favorite tag in Hungary
If there is one club in Europe that no one wants to face at the moment it must be Manchester City as Pep Guardiola’s men continue to crush anyone who gets in their way, national or continental.
The Premier League giants are on an 18-game winning streak in all competitions and it’s part of a larger 25-game unbeaten streak as their last loss was in November against Tottenham Hotspur.
Gladbach won fans over with their fearless approach to the Champions League this season, but City are a completely different beast compared to their group stage competition where they faced a struggling Real and an Inter Milan side who fell like a rock – even Shakhtar managed to beat Inter to secure a fall in the Europa League despite a 10-0 overall bombardment at the hands of Gladbach.
Even more difficult is the fact that the attractive Bundesliga side know that Coach Rose is leaving for Dortmund at the end of the season and influential striker Marcus Thuram suffers from a knee injury is even more difficult to overcome.
Gladbach has won only one of their last five matches in all competitions and that was in the German DFB Pokal National Cup and they also went four games without a Bundesliga win and their two losses came at home.
Perhaps leaving BORUSSIA-PARK for Puskas Arena for this one will be a welcome change for Die Fohlen, but City remain a hugely important challenge and the Premier League giant should do light work of his inexperienced opponents on two legs.
City won five and drew in the other of their group matches in a pool that included FC Porto, Olympique de Marseille and Olympiacos, so they weren’t tested as seriously as Gladbach was in their relative death group.
However, City’s domestic form does not lend itself to the argument that they will have been lured into a false sense of security as they possibly were last year when they fell victim to the surprise package. ‘Olympique Lyonnais in Lisbon.
Gladbach might be wise to observe the regular problems the Gones have caused Guardiola’s men in recent years and try to replicate aspects of the French team’s defensive and counter-attacking approach as ‘they are trying to do the unthinkable.
