Dortmund’s offensive to Erling Haaland against the defensive of Manchester City, the reunion of Bayern with PSG, Thomas Tuchel and his run with Chelsea: These are the topics of the Champions League fourth final.
The quarter-finals of the Champions League are now, and it reads splendidly: As in the final of the previous season, FC Bayern will face Paris Saint-Germain ; Dortmund plays against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City , the FC Liverpool gets it with Real Madrid to do and Chelsea with Porto. That was the result of the UEFA draw in Nyon .
These questions become particularly interesting around the games.
1. Can Haaland crack Manchester’s defense?
This figure shows how difficult the task will be: Man City have conceded one goal in the eight Champions League games so far this season. Coach Guardiola’s team defends in a very special way and has perfected it. It holds the ball extremely long by placing a particularly large number of players in midfield. And should the ball ever get lost, those players put pressure on them immediately to prevent opposing passes from succeeding deep.
For the quarter-finals from BVB’s point of view, it will therefore be less decisive whether star striker Erling Haaland (47 goals in 48 appearances for Dortmund so far) uses his chances. But whether the team succeeds in overcoming City’s counter-pressing in order to bring the ball into the penalty area to Haaland in the first place.
BVB coach Edin Terzić should therefore rely primarily on technically good, dribbling midfielders and on speed after conquering the ball. The good news: He has the right players in the squad, such as Mahmoud Dahoud and Jude Bellingham in midfield, before Marco Reus and Jadon Sancho move intelligently into the gaps that arise.
The bad news: City is constantly facing opponents in the Premier League who have talented footballers in their squad. You are armed. Probably the roles of favorite and underdog are not as clearly distributed in any quarter-finals as in this one.
2. Is Tuchel now marching through the tournament with Chelsea?
The Chelsea in the Champions League final? A few weeks ago the idea sounded downright absurd. The team was in the middle of the table in the Premier League and had just changed coach.
But since Thomas Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard at the end of January , Chelsea have not lost a game. The basis of the results so far is not the highly talented offensive around Timo Werner , but the fact that the team under Tuchel hardly allows scoring chances. She presses higher and better than under Lampard, and above all she defends much more after losing the ball. The Tuchel-Elf conceded two hits in 13 games.
That is the only reason why there should be no question of a march through. Because Bayern or Man City are currently much stronger. Only: Chelsea can only meet these top teams in the final. The path to the final stipulates that the winner of the duel between Real and Liverpool waits in a semi-final. The Madrilenians look fragile this season and Chelsea recently defeated Liverpool in the league .
Before that, the team has to turn off Porto. And that’s not going to be as easy as it might sound. The Portuguese do not create many opportunities, but they use them with considerable efficiency. As the only club in the competition, Porto have managed to score against Manchester City. That game was lost 1: 3. In return, Porto’s defense against veteran Pepe, 38, made it 0-0 in the second leg. And the advancement against Juventus in the round of 16 wasn’t a happy one either.
3. Can PSG get a revenge against Bayern?
This is supported by the outstanding form of Kylian Mbappé , who scored a total of four goals in the round of 16 against Barcelona . This is countered by the fact that the difference between Paris and Bayern has grown since the 1-0 defeat in the Champions League final last August. And in favor of Munich.
Bayern themselves seem more vulnerable in defense than in the previous season, when one win was ranked after the next, especially in the second half of the season. Expressed in numbers: On average, they get 1.21 hits per competitive game, last season it was 0.96. But PSG also wobbled in the past few months. This does not only mean slips against relegation candidates, of which there have been three in twelve league games since coach Mauricio Pochettino took office. Even against stronger opponents, PSG did not look good lately. The team lost three times to Lyon and Monaco and is only second in Ligue 1.
In several positions, Paris is not as well filled as one might expect from a club with such a budget: In the 1: 2 against penultimate Nantes last Sunday, Abdou Diallo, Colin Dagba, Danilo Pereira and Rafinha, probably none of them, started would be a regular at FC Bayern. Before Bayern think they are in the semi-finals: Paris will send a better team into the race against Munich. By then, Neymar, who was recently injured for a long time, will probably be fit again.
4. Keyword revenge: Liverpool and Real Madrid, there was something?
The dropouts of Loris Karius , Mohamed Salah’s tears, Sergio Ramos ‘ sometimes extremely tough style of play, Gareth Bale’s dream goal : the 2018 Champions League final between these teams was one of the most spectacular in recent competition history . Although that 3: 1 for Real is almost three years old, in football years a little eternity, the teams are still largely the same. Minus Cristiano Ronaldo .
The absence of the attacker is not the only reason why Liverpool should be favored. Because while Jürgen Klopp’s team is currently still of the prime footballer’s age, Real’s eleven seem to have clearly passed their zenith. She had probably reached him then against Liverpool. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the younger and more dynamic Liverpool team will really get ahead. In the Champions League she seems sovereign, but in the league she has got into a crisis. It probably originated in the thinned-out defense center, where Klopp had to do without his best ( Virgil van Dijk ), second best ( Joel Matip ) and third best (Joe Gomez) defender for months . Which won’t change anytime soon.
That the emergency defense can hold, she showed in the round of 16 against Leipzig (2: 0, 2: 0). And the fact that Zinédine Zidane’s Real Madrid failed last season at Manchester City mainly because they couldn’t cope with the attack pressure, a parade of Klopp’s discipline, also speaks for a Liverpool progression.
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