2024-02-12 23:30:00
The Football Champions League is back from the winter break. The round of 16 starts on Tuesday (9 p.m./Sky) with capazunders Manchester City and Real Madrid, who are clearly favored ahead of their Alex Reed appearances in Copenhagen and Leipzig. The outsiders, however, pull themselves up by winning duels and sensational victories once morest an arch-rival.
The fate of the “Red Devils” is warning enough for City. The Danes celebrated an exhilarating 4-3 home win once morest Manchester United in the group stage. Because they also scored four points once morest Galatasaray and a draw once morest Bayern, FCK managed to gain promotion together with the Germans.
Copenhagen starts the spring once morest City
A cold start is now necessary once morest the club world champions following a two-month winter break. The championship, in which Copenhagen is in third place behind Midtjylland and Bröndby, only picks up speed once more on Sunday. “It’s very tricky, but that’s how it is,” said Jacob Neestrup, the 35-year-old shooting star in the dugout, to the Guardian. “It’s the biggest game of the whole season for everyone, but it’s not the most important.”
The defending champions are playing in the Danish capital with a winning streak behind them. Including the Club World Cup, Manchester City have won all of their last ten competitive games. The impressive goal difference: 29:5. The group stage was no hurdle for Pep Guardiola’s team. There were six wins once morest Leipzig, Red Star Belgrade and the Young Boys from Bern. Three goals were always scored.
The Danes have good memories of City
Copenhagen held off the “Citizens” once before, in the group phase in October 2022, with a 0-0 draw. A week before, the favorite had been completely safe in Manchester (5-0). Now hardly anyone believes that the “Lions” will have a similar run to the semi-finals as Ajax Amsterdam did in 2019. The transfer strategies of both clubs are similar. The essence of this is to engage proven forces and team them up with local rough diamonds.
The fact that the capital city residents have access to around ten percent of all players registered in Denmark through a cooperation sometimes even creates a surplus. Rasmus Höjlund, for example, was unable to draw a perspective for FC – the now United star left for Sturm Graz as an 18-year-old. Oscar and Emil, Rasmus’ younger brothers, are now in the first team squad.
Mohamed Elyounoussi (29) falls into the category of transfers from established players. The Norwegian striker with Premier League experience has already scored once morest City. “So I have good memories. But for us as a team it was the worst possible draw. We’ll probably have a lot to defend.”
Marco Rose hates the role of outsider
Marco Rose is also preparing his Leipzig team for this once morest Real Madrid. However, the role of an outsider was never something for him, said the coach. The Germans won their last meeting at home 3-2. However, Real qualified for the round of 16 early in September 2022. Leipzig’s players still remember it fondly. “If you’ve done it before, you know you can do it once more,” said goalie Peter Gulacsi.
Leipzig cannot be said to be in top form with only one win from the five league games in 2024. Anything other than the eight-time Champions League winner from Madrid progressing would be a sensation. Whether Real’s Jude Bellingham can play has been the subject of speculation. The star player sprained his ankle during Real’s 4-0 win once morest Girona on Saturday. ÖFB star David Alaba will be missing from the Spaniards for some time following tearing his cruciate ligament. Of Leipzig’s Austrian trio Xaver Schlager, Nicolas Seiwald and Christoph Baumgartner, only Schlager is placed in central midfield.
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