The
Champions League
generates attraction in the world soccer environment and, specifically, in Argentina.
Even more so when there are players involved and it is strengthened with the recent title in the World Cup in Qatar 2022. Between Tuesday and Wednesday the other half of the first legs of the round of 16 will be played and there will be an albiceleste presence, for what it is worth review the crossings that will attract attention.
The duel of the 20 'Orejonas' that repeats the last final between Real Madrid and Liverpool, the moment of Lautaro Martínez with Inter Italy and the illusion of Julián Álvarez with Manchester City are the main attractions of the four matches that will be played for the most important club tournament at European level.
Let's go one by one...
Liverpool vs Real Madrid
Photo: Reuters/Andrew Boyers
This Tuesday, starting at 5:00 p.m. (ESPN or Fox Sports television), the majesty of Anfield, where Liverpool resides in a complex season, receives a duel that, based on finals (3), became a classic of European football in which Real Madrid acted as king of Europe.
The most repeated Champions League final, with two recent conquests for 'Merengue', make it the great rival to beat for the 'Reds': the failures of Loris Karius and the pain of the injury of 'Mo' Salah in 2018;
and four years later, in Paris, he crashed into a wall named Thibaut Courtois.
Months later they meet again at the first exchange, where coach Carlo Ancelotti will not be able to count on two of his three starting midfielders affected by flu:
Aurélien Tchouaméni
and
Toni Kroos
.
The current champion, winner this season of the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup, was first in his group in the highest European competition, not even his sporadic fluctuations of the season nor the distance from the leader Barcelona in the Spanish championship cloud the indisputable figure of Real Madrid, with only five defeats in their 36 games, although four were from November until now.
Photo: EFE/EPA/PETER POWELL
On July 30, when they won the Community Shield against Manchester City (3-1) in their first official match of the season, no one knew that Liverpool would go through the season in an unrecognizable crisis in performance and results, except for the Champions.
When the first phase of the tournament concluded, barring a 4-1 loss to Napoli on the opening day, Liverpool won everything in that competition, also scoring 16 goals in the last five games.
The problem was the rest of the tournaments, because those five victories represented half of the duels he had won so far: 10 out of 19.
Jurgen Klopp
's group
, which has included the Dutchman
Cody Gakpo
and the promising
Stefan Bajcetic
, among others, in its list for this tournament, won only
seven of 15 games
this break , with three draws and five losses, was eliminated from both the League Cup as well as the FA Cup and is in ninth position in the Premier League.
Eintrach Frankfurt vs Napoli
Photo: Alessandro Garofalo/LaPresse via AP.
The same Tuesday will have an attractive crossing in Germany, starting at 5:00 p.m. (ESPN or Fox Sports television).
Napoli
, the absolute leader of the Italian Serie A with fifteen points ahead, puts its level to the test in the visit to an
Eintrach Frankfurt
that seeks to break the forecasts
.
With the Argentine
Giovanni Simeone
as a replacement, the team from the South of Italy enters the game again with all the ambition, security and firmness of an unstoppable block.
Until November, with five victories in six games in the first phase of the Champions League (they only lost in the last meeting against Liverpool, 2-0, but they were the leader), they were an overwhelming team, winning 15 of their 18
games
.
He hasn't slowed down either since then, with ten wins in twelve games, of which he only conceded one draw (2-2 with Cremonese that eliminated him from the Italian Cup) and one loss, 0-1 with Inter.
The litmus test now is the Champions League, in which it has never gone beyond the round of 16, in which it now competes with Eintracht, irregular, and sixth in the Bundesliga.
Photo: REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
The German team, which has
Lucas Alario
in its ranks and the last Europa League champion, began the season with disappointments (they won six of their first fifteen official games), until they resurfaced and barely lost one of the last ten games.
Leipzig vs Manchester City
Photo: Reuters/Jason Cairnduff
For Wednesday (5:00 p.m.) there will be a crossing with a reserved forecast.
It is that
Manchester City
is unknown in the midst of the investigation of the Premier League and the draw against Nottingham Forest at the weekend that made them lose their lead, contrasts with the good passing of
Leipzig
.
Julián Álvarez
has had very little participation since he became world champion, eclipsed by the Norwegian
Erling Haaland
, author of 32 goals in 31 games this season.
The team has only lost six of 35 games, although three of those have been since the competition resumed after the 2022 World Cup.
Photo: AP / Martin Meissner.
Last weekend's defeat against Unión Berlin by 1-2, from which they recovered on the last day of the Bundesliga with a 0-3 victory in Wolfsburg, was the only game lost by Leipzig since the 17th of September.
If the season began with just three wins in its first eleven official matches, with as many draws and six defeats, from there it continued with a reliable team, which has only lost in one of its last 20 games, of which it has won fifteen. and tied four, and that put out any doubt in the Champions League with four consecutive victories.
Since the end of the group stage, at the same time, the fifth in the current Bundesliga standings, out of the places that give the right to play in the Champions League next year, added seven victories in ten games, with two draws and a defeat, while also awaiting the quarterfinals of the German Cup.
Inter vs Porto
Photo: ANSA / MATTEO BAZZI.
Without any new entries in the Champions League list, Inter overcame the anxiety at the beginning of the season to continue in the round of 16 of the highest European competition, to be champion of the Italian Super Cup, to occupy the second position in the current Serie A standings and await the semifinals of the Italian Cup.
The five defeats with which they went through the first ten official matches put everything in doubt in the 'neroazzurro' group, which has reacted from October onwards, also in the Champions League, following their 1-0 victory against Barcelona, with 16 wins, three draws and just two losses in that stretch.
Since November, when the group stage ended, he has not slowed down.
They have won ten of their 16 duels, with two draws and two defeats, with Lautaro Martínez becoming captain and soccer leader.
Photo: AP / Luis Vieira.
On the other side will be Porto de Portugal.
They won a tough group with Bruges, Leverkusen and Atlético de Madrid, in which they lost the first two games but recovered with four victories.
Today he maintains his firmness from then and with an
invincible
appearance, with an undefeated record of 22 official competition matches, of which he won 19. He has not lost since October 21, when he fell 0-1 against Benfica, the only one who lost him. surpasses in the Portuguese League standings, two points ahead with one game less.
Since their qualification in the Champions League, culminating in November with the 2-1 with which they eliminated Atlético not only from that tournament but from all European consolation, they have played 19 games, with 17 wins and two draws.
This Saturday, in their last duel before visiting Milan to face Inter, they beat Río Ave 1-0 with a goal from Toni Martínez.
look also
Liverpool-Real Madrid, the revenge: history and favoritism
Lionel Messi took advantage of a break at PSG and traveled with his family to Barcelona
City did not use Julián Álvarez but Haaland returned: he beat Arsenal in London and reached him at the top of the Premier
False step by Enzo Fernández's Chelsea: they lost to Dortmund and will have to come back from the series to continue in the Champions League
"Call an Uber!": Enzo Fernández, mocked by a Brazilian media after Chelsea's defeat
