After Tuesday night’s Champions League fixtures both ended in disappointing goal-less draws, attention quickly turns to Wednesday night. In what is arguably the tie of the round, Atletico Madrid host Juventus and Manchester City travel to German dark horses, Schalke.
Once again, the InterBet team will preview both games, offering the latest team news, odds and tips ahead of Wednesday evening’s fixtures.
Schalke 04 vs Manchester City
Manchester City head to Germany hoping to take another giant step towards claiming an unprecedented quadruple. Despite midfielder, Kevin de Bruyne, labelling a quadruple as “almost impossible”, Pep Guardiola’s side are still in with a great chance of claiming clean sweep of all four major trophies this season and are heavy favourites to defeat Schalke in their last-16 meeting.
City currently sit on top of the Premier League table, are through to the FA Cup quarter final and face Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final this coming weekend. Hosts, Schalke, are languishing in 14th in the Bundesliga and win-less in four league games (D2, L2).
As a first Champions League title continues to elude City, they have made no secret of their desire to win the competition sooner rather than later. The current Premier League leaders are the 3/1 favourites to lift this season’s Champions League.
Records in Sight for Guardiola
Manager, Guardiola, has a fine record in the Champions League, winning twice with Barcelona. A third triumph will draw him level with Bob Paisley (1977, 1978, 1981), Carlo Ancelotti (2003, 2007, 2014) and Zinedine Zidane (2016, 2017, 2018). He can also join Ancelotti (Milan and Real Madrid), Jose Mourinho (Porto and Inter) and Ernst Happel (Feyenoord and Hamburg) in an elite group of managers to be crowned kings of Europe with two different clubs.
Despite reaching the Champions League semi-finals in seven of his past nine seasons as a manager, Guardiola has not reached the final since 2011. City have not reached a major European final since winning the now-defunct European Cup Winners’ Cup back in 1970. Ironically, City eliminated Schalke at the semi-final stage en route to that 1970 triumph.
Can Schalke Spring a Surprise?
There is no doubting that Manchester City have the players and know-how to blow their German opposition away however, history suggests that Schalke should not be underestimated. Schalke are unbeaten in their last nine European home games whilst Manchester City have lost five and won just twice in their eight previous Champions League knockout games away from home.
Of the 16 remaining teams in this season’s Champions League, no side scored fewer goals in the group stage than Schalke yet only Borussia Dortmund bettered their record of four group stage clean sheets. Therefore, InterBet’s odds of 14/1 on yet another 0-0 draw in the Champions League is sure to prove popular.
Team News
John Stones (groin) and Gabriel Jesus (hamstring) have been ruled out of the trip to Schalke through injury but should be fit for this weekend’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley. Benjamin Mendy and Fabian Delph remain long-term absentees.
On Stones and Gabriel Jesus, manager, Guardiola, explained, “John Stones had a groin problem yesterday and Gabriel Jesus finished the game in Newport with a hamstring problem. It’s not a big one but big enough for them not to be here.”
Familiar Faces
One player that has travelled with the Manchester City squad is former Schalke singer, Leroy Sane. The German international swapped Schalke for Manchester City in a £37m deal back in 2016. Sane has two goals in four Champions League games this season and is 6/4 to score at any time against his former club.
During the January transfer window, Welsh international, Rabbi Motondo, went in the opposite direction when he departed the Etihad for Schalke in a £9.6m move. The 18-year old never played for the City first team but is expected to start against them in Gelsenkirchen. Motondo is 6/1 to score at any time in Wednesday’s match.
Match Odds
Schalke 04 – 89/10
Draw – 21/5
Manchester City – 31/100
To Qualify
Schalke 04 – 93/10
Manchester City – 1/50
Atletico Madrid vs Juventus
Wednesday night’s other Champions League tie is arguably the best draw of the round. Quickly becoming the competition’s nearly men in recent seasons, the European giants lost two finals apiece between 2014 and 2017.
This season’s final will be held at Atletico’s Wanda Metropolitano Stadium and they will hope to continue Spain’s recent dominance of the competition. During La Liga’s monopoly of the tournament, Real Madrid have claimed four wins in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and Barcelona triumphed in 2015. However, three-time Champions League runners-up and three-time Europa League winner, Atletico Madrid, have never won the European football’s biggest prize.
Their last-16 opponents, Juventus, have been equally unlucky in Europe in recent years. The Turin giants have won Italy’s Serie A in each of the past seven seasons but have lost five Champions League finals since last lifting the trophy in 1996.
In an effort to end that barren spell, Juventus forked out over £100m in the summer for five-time Champions League winner, Cristiano Ronaldo. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward has hit the ground running at Juventus but doubts are starting to emerge over whether Ronaldo and Paulo Dybala are able to play together.
Dybala has scored six goals in his past seven Champions League games but has often started on the bench in Serie A recently. Alongside Ronaldo, manager, Max Allegri, has opted to play former Atletico Madrid forward, Mario Mandzukic, rather than Dybala up front in several of their recent games.
Although he has scored 19 goals in his debut Serie A season, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored only one goal in his past eight Champions League games. Whilst at Real Madrid, Ronaldo also failed to score in four of his past five Champions League games against Atletico.
Juventus midfielder, Sami Khedira, will miss the Champions League clash and is expected to be out for up to a month as he undergoes treatment for an irregular heartbeat.
Match Odds
Atletico Madrid – 191/100
Draw – 187/100
Juventus – 177/100
To Qualify
Atletico Madrid – 161/100
Juventus – 9/20
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