Real Madrid vs FC Schalke 04
Competition: Champions League, 2014/2015 - Round of 16 (second leg)
Match date: Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Kick Off Time: 19:45 GMT
Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Competition: Champions League, 2014/2015 - Round of 16 (second leg)
Match date: Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Kick Off Time: 19:45 GMT
Venue: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Madrid, Spain
The smooth Real Madrid engine has been running like the
roaring monster we all know and admire for most of the season, however
recently, their streak of good performances have been a bit tarnished.
The first indication of this came in the 0-4 defeat against Atletico last month, and the defending Champions League champions are now
experiencing a small crisis of form as the club has a hard time creating
good attacking possibilities like before, and they have only scored one
goal on penalty in the last two matches against Villarreal and Bilbao – very unusual for a Real side who averages 3 goals per
match in Liga
this season. In the UCL, the team has shown a constant
display of good form and every opposition has been beaten, which Schalke
04 experienced in the first leg as the Spaniards won 2-0. Real Madrid
looks like a serious contender to become the first club in the UCL history to win the tournament two years in a row, and the
convincing campaign has been facilitated by an impervious defence, that
has only allowed two goals against combined with a lethal offense
including some of football’s biggest profiles led by Ronaldo.
The Portuguese has once again been a goal-scoring machine, as he scores
as he likes in both Spanish and European football. In Primera Division
he has currently reached 30 goals in 26 matches and in UCL he
has scored 6 goals in 7 matches. In recent years, Ronaldo has scored
every time Real Madrid played Schalke, which has resulted in 5 goals in 3
matches. Ronaldo is an incredible goal scorer and Schalke will have
hard time keeping him and the rest of the Real Madrid offense away from
the score sheet on Tuesday.
FC Schalke 04’s results are not really going according to
plan at the moment. The club did manage to win 3-1 against Hoffenheim on
the weekend, but that was the club’s first win in 5 games and
just their third win in 8 games after the German winter break. The team
is having difficulties finding a continuous run of good form and
especially their away game performances is problematic. In 2015, Schalke
have still not won an away game and this is a general pattern of the
club’s Bundesliga season
where they have only managed to get 10 of their 38 points when playing
away from Arena-Auf-Schalke. In UCL, the form of the team
has been very inconsistent as well, and they just made it through to the
round of 16 by finishing 2nd in group G, only 1 point ahead
of Sporting. Last year’s knock-out battle against Real
resulted in a 9-2 win on aggregate for the Spanish team and when you
take a look at Schalke’s squad, it as hard to see who should deliver the
surprise for them. The appointment of manager Roberto Di Matteo in
October has introduced a more defensive approach, however, even though
the Italian manager won the tournament with Chelsea in 2012, we are
pretty confident that he does not have the tools at hand to make it
through to the quarterfinals this time.
Probable lineups:
Real Madrid: Navas – Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Marcelo – Modric, T. Kroos, Isco – Bale, C. Ronaldo, Benzema.
FC Schalke 04: Wellenreuther – Howedes, Matip, Nastasic – Uchida, Fuchs – Neustadter – Barnetta, M. Meyer – Choupo-Moting, Huntelaar.
