Champions League | Matchday 24/02/2021

Champions League | Matchday 24/02/2021. Today we have 2 matches of the Champions league in the spotlight for our players. Lots of fun!

Home » Champions League | Matchday 24/02/2021

by olivier

February 24, 2021 0 264

Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Manchester City

Gladbach has found the back of the net in each of their nine Champions League home games, scoring 17 goals in total.
Dortmund forward Erling Haaland (eight), Paris Saint Germain’s Neymar, Juventus’ Alvaro Morata and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford (all six) are the only players in this season’s league to have scored more goals than Plea (five).
Plea is also jointly third in the assists table with three – one less than De Bruyne.
Borussia defeated City 4-2 in total in the quarter-finals of the 1978–79 UEFA Cup, en route to lifting the trophy.
Yann Sommer, Stindl and Wendt – who have played against the Premier League team in all four games – are the lone survivors of that first game with City in 2015, which ended in a 2-1 defeat and saw Stindl appear on the scoresheet with Gladbach’s first-ever Champions League goal.
Guardiola’s career record as a coach against Gladbach is: W3, D3, L2.

Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Manchester City over the years

Gladbach made their home Champions League debut against Manchester City in the 2015-16 pools and was re-drawn the following season against the four-time English Premier League champion, taking a point from Guardiola in Borussia-Park. While they haven’t yet beaten City in four Champions League tries, the Foals won two and drawn two of Guardiola’s six Bundesliga matches against Bayern between 2013 and 2016.

Guardiola’s current pick came so far by surpassing Group C for Porto, claiming 16 points out of a possible 18, but never making it past the Champions League quarter-finals in four tries on the Catalan’s guard. Former Nuremberg and Dortmund midfielder Ilkay Gündogan is expected to start after recently recovering from a groin strain. Ex-Werder Bremen and Wolfsburg playmaker Kevin De Bruyne has also fully recovered from a hamstring injury. The match will be played in Budapest after German authorities have refused entry to the runaway Premier League leaders due to new Covid-19 protocols.

Likely lineups

Gladbach: Sommer – Lainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini – Kramer, Neuhaus – Wolf, Stindl (c), Hofmann – Plea
Out: Doucoure (match fitness)
Doubtful: Thuram (knee)
Coach: Marco Rose
Man City: Ederson – Walker, Stones, Dias, Cancelo – De Bruyne, Rodri, Gündogan – Sterling (c), Jesus, Foden
Out: Ake (hamstring), Carson (not included)
Questionable: –
Coach: Pep Guardiola

Atalanta VS Real Madrid

Zinedine Zidane says he is unwilling to risk players when Real Madrid visited Atalanta in the Champions League for the past 16 years amid a growing list of injuries.

Top scorer Karim Benzema was one of nine Real players who missed Saturday’s 1-0 win at Real Valladolid with an injury and has not traveled to Italy.

The 13-time European champions have only 11 fit senior players for the first leg in Bergamo on Wednesday.

“We never take risks,” said Zidane of French striker Benzema.

“Maybe if it was the Champions League final or the last game of the league game season with the title at stake, but there is still a long way to go.”

Eden Hazard, Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal and Marcelo are also among those who will miss the first knockout match.

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini says his party, which reached the quarter-finals last season, remains wary of the threat from the Spanish giants.

“We cannot change our characteristics, which allowed us to reach the Champions League and be competitive in Italy,” said Gasperini.

“We will not change the team, but we have to be vigilant and take some precautions. We want to challenge the absolute best teams and feel in the right shape to do our best.”

“Real Madrid is turning into the Champions League. I don’t believe much in their absence, you can take away the talent, but the Real team that got to see the last few weekends was a more humble side, and that’s a quality.”

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

This is the first competitive meeting between Atalanta and Real Madrid. In fact, Atalanta’s only previous encounter with a Spanish side in the European league was in last season’s round of 16 when they faced Valencia – they won 8-4 in total.

Atalanta

Atalanta are the first team since Sevilla (2007-08 and 2009-10) to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League in each of their first two matches.
Atalanta is the only remaining team in the last 16 to have won a home game in the Champions League this season (D2 L1).
None of Atalanta’s fifteen Champions League matches ended goalless. Since last season, their games have yielded 53 goals (27 for, 26 against), averaging 3.5 per game.
70% of their goals in this season’s group stage were scored in the second half (7 out of 10), the highest percentage of the 16 teams remaining in the league.
Defender Cristian Romero made more interceptions than any other player in this season’s group stage (24). He also won the most aerial duels (33) among players still in the competition.
Despite not taking any penalty, striker Duván Zapata set the highest number of expected goals in the group stage (4.28 xG). In particular, he had nine ‘big chances’ (scoring three), also the best number in the group stage.

Real Madrid

Real Madrid have won each of their last five Champions League away matches against the Italian opposition (12 goals in favor, 1 against) – having won just three of their previous 16 trips to Italy.
They have also found the net in each of their last 19 games against Italian teams, with the last side being Juventus in November 2008 (0-2).
Real has reached the knockout stages for the 24th consecutive season, the longest such run in the history of the league. The last time they didn’t make it to the final stage of the tournament was in 199- / 97 – it was also the last season in which they didn’t play in a European league.
Since debuting in the league, forward Karim Benzema has been one of two players to score 10+ goals with his head, 10+ with his right foot and 10+ with his left foot – the other being Cristiano Ronaldo. He has scored five goals in his last six knockout matches, after scoring just one in his previous 18.
Zinedine Zidane has prevailed as Real Madrid manager in 12 of his 13 Champions League knockout matches (nine home / away matches and three finals), the only exception being Pep Guardiola’s match against Manchester City in the 16th round from last season.

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