Reliable betting brand 1xBet analyzes four battles of the main European club tournament.
February 21, Liverpool vs Real.
Take off your hats: we’ll hear You’ll Never Walk Alone again. Let’s go to the match at Anfield, where Liverpool will play against Real Madrid. The famous song of the Liverpool beat group Gerry & The Pacemakers will come in handy more than ever for Jurgen Klopp. The coach is going through the most challenging phase in his career.
How not to talk about the curse of the seventh season (Klopp is known for a fact that every 7 years, his teams go through a pretty bad crisis): at the end of 2022, Merseyside was relegated from the League Cup from Man City, and then start the new year with a defeat from Brighton in the FA Cup. In the Premier League, things are no better: four points in five matches in January is the worst start for the team in ten years.
But the management still supports the coach. So Klopp has no choice but to work hard in the Champions League (or turn to a psychologist). The Reds reached the ⅛ finals for the sixth time in a row, beating Ajax and Rangers with difficulty. But will it bring them joy? We believe most of the club’s fans are willing to pay a lot of money for their team’s season to end right now.
Carlo Ancelotti and Real will have a two-hour flight from sunny Madrid to the city of the Beatles. And let their plane fly in good weather, but the team and the coach have been notably stormy lately.
Already in October, it became obvious that the victories were much more difficult for Madrid than in August-September. All this was superimposed on a very unpleasant trend – losing points in matches against weak opponents after the resumption of La Liga. Take at least the lost game to Mallorca, in which the Blaugranes shot the opponent’s goal only once. Alas, no one can effectively replace Benzema in the centre-forward position, and there is no escaping this.
The explanation is simple. Real’s leaders – Modrić, Benzema and Kroos, who are 105 years old together, are already tired. The resort regime in La Liga allowed Real to conserve energy, but now everything is different.
Less than a year ago, the match between these rivals in the Champions League final was a battle of the best clubs in the world. Now it is the game of England’s tenth team against the Spanish second team. Thus passes the glory of the world.
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February 21, Eintracht vs Napoli
We are leaving for Germany, where the European fairy tale continues for Eintracht. Having won the Europa League last season, they qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history. The Germans showed their character in the group with Tottenham, Sporting and Marseille and left the second place. Coach Oliver Glasner played a significant role in the team’s victories. After the triumph in the Europa League, this manager relies on ball possession – and it is quite natural when you have a playmaker like Mario Götze in your team. Add Jesper Lindstrøm and Daichi Kamada to it, it becomes clear why the team give results. Until a recent match against Cologne, the Eagles have not lost in the Bundesliga for seven rounds in a row. And in the German Cup, Frankfurt reached the quarterfinals, beating Darmstadt, the leader of the second division.
Somewhere in heaven, the great Diego Maradona supports Napoli with a white-blue scarf in his hand. We hope that he, as the club legend and the best player of his generation, sees how great Spalletti pumped the Partenopei. The Neapolitans have scored more points this season than any other team in the top 5 leagues.
Napoli destroyed Liverpool, Rangers and Ajax in the Champions League, giving the best start to the tournament in the history of Italian teams. The duo of offensive players Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen is especially good. These players often find free areas and can beat any defender one-to-one. So far, Napoli has won European Cups only once – in 1990, team captain Diego Maradona lifted the UEFA Cup. Now it sounds incredible, but this season, the team is quite capable of competing for a second trophy.
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February 22, Leipzig vs Manchester City
Let’s stay in Germany and move 400 km from Frankfurt. Leipzig is a city of fairs, festivals and beautiful architecture. The eponymous club is located here, which, under the leadership of Marco Rose, began to use pressing and counter-pressing more efficiently. The players regained confidence, which affected the results in the Champions League and Bundesliga.
Like Eintracht mentioned above, Leipzig also claims to get into the TOP-4 with only one but – the Red Bulls have a better-balanced attacking line. And more money. However, a bank account is not always decisive, and it did not help the team in the match with Union, which has a total cost of players three times less.
Returning from Chelsea, Timo Werner became one of the team’s best strikers. He is second only to Christopher Nkunku in goals (we really hope this forward will recover from the injury). Thanks to them, Leipzig scored in all 36 UCL games.
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But can the Bulls keep a clean sheet against the Manchester team? This is the question for two geniuses – forward Haaland and coach Guardiola.
Man City was one of the first to reach the playoffs, where they will play for the 10th time in a row. The Citizens keep the opponents hemmed in their half of the field and rock them with countless passes until they give up the slack. By the way, it works in the Champions League but not always in the Premier League. Recently, the Citizens lost to Tottenham, and this was the rare case when the City attack did not know what to do with a parked bus. Interestingly, after the reconstruction of White Hart Lane, Guardiola has 5 matches, 5 defeats and 0 goals in this stadium. Maybe the sheikhs from Man City should build a new stadium for the Spurs?
Episodic failures in the championship should not affect the coach and the team, but the latest news can do this. The Premier League accused Manchester City of numerous financial rules violations (so surprising, isn’t it?). Sanctions are still unpredictable, but the case may end with a transfer ban and relegation. If this happens, Guardiola could move to Paris – the PSG owners are closely monitoring the situation and invitingly rustling a multi-million dollar contract.
The Catalan won the Champions League twice, but 11 years have passed since then. Perhaps this is his last chance to take the trophy with City.
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February 22, Inter vs Porto
The last city where we would like to stop is Milan. Inter is preparing to tame the Portuguese dragons in the San Siro stadium.
Simone Inzaghi’s team is approaching the match with a very worthy background. The Nerazzurri have made it to the Italy Cup quarterfinals and are doing well at the top of the Serie A standings. Catching up to Napoli will be difficult, but there is still a chance.
In Inter’s game, pressing deserves special praise. Barcelona felt that when losing 0:1 away and managing to gnaw out a crazy home draw 3:3. Having completed the playoff march with a victory over Viktoria, Inzaghi’s team is preparing for a match with the Portuguese opponent.
One of the main reasons why rivals should be wary of Porto is the work of the manager Sergio Conceição. In five seasons, he became the national champion three times and won the Cup and three Portuguese Super Cups. This season, his team is doing much worse. Porto lost the Portuguese League Cup final to Sporting and is falling behind top-placed Benfica.
Losing the final of the Portuguese League Cup to Sporting and a significant gap from Benfica, which is currently in the first place, does not inspire joy. It remains only to give everything and hope in the Portuguese Cup (fans always need more trophies). In its history, Porto has twice beaten Italian clubs in the ⅛ finals: Roma in the 2018/19 season and Juventus in the 2020/21 season. But Inter has already knocked Dragons out in the ⅛ finals of the 2004/05 season and has never lost at home to an opponent from Portugal. Who will be stronger this time?
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