The Champions League is back! Thank UEFA for that.
That’s right, after a two-month hiatus, the round of 16 kicks off tonight, with the mighty Bayern Munich travelling to the Ukraine to play Shakhtar Donetsk for the very first time. They better brng their gloves because it will be cold, very cold.
Like European football’s premier competition, most of the continent’s top leagues have had a mid-winter break too. While the Bundesliga big boys Bayern seem to have regained their rhythm with an 8-0 (yes, eight) tonking of hapless Hamburg on Saturday, this will be Shakhtar’s first competitive game since the 5th of December.
With only friendlies to keep them going during the three-month denouement in the Ukrainian Premier League programme, Shakhtar will need to hit the ground running to keep the tie alive for the second leg. So, given Bayern’s home form, a 7-0 might just be enough.
Considering that the Ukrainians have to play their home games near the Polish border rather than at their Donbass Stadium in Donetsk - because of the crisis there - it will be a big ask.
Bayern remain favourites for the trophy and with the likes of Lewandowski, Robben and Muller all finding the net at the weekend, we expect goals and plenty of them.
‘They didn’t want half-time to come’ is a well-worn phrase in football and usually refers to the dominant team being stopped while in full flow. Well, the mid-season break certainly came at the wrong time for the Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
Crowned the world’s best footballer for 2014 in January, the Portuguese phenomenon’s standards have slipped in alarming fashion since he was presented with Balon D’Or. In the 10 games prior to receiving the shiny bauble, Ronaldo scored 12 goals, while in the 10 games after the award he has only scored four times.
Amidst this fall off in form, the Madrid talisman missed two games after he was sent off for ‘kicking and punching’ an opponent in a La Liga game against Cordoba. As the old saying goes ‘what goes up must come down’ but don’t be surprised if CR7 comes back up again firing on all cylinders in tomorrow's game against Schalke04…04 being a potential scoreline, given the European champions 6-1 victory against the Germans last season.
Although Madrid have won only three of their 27 trips to Germany, as we mentioned, they did win against their opponents in the corresponding game last year. While not at their very best in the Spanish League, by which they lead Barcelona by one point, Ancelotti’s men are on a nine-match winning streak in this year’s Champions League, scoring 25 goals and conceding just three. Good luck, Schalke.
