The UEFA Champions League is back this week. Barcelona have already felt the weight of a superstar performance, as Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain insisted on being the best player in the world, as his hat-trick led his team to a 4-1 victory at Camp Nou, while RB Leipzig conceded two goals for Liverpool in a match was transferred from Leipzig to Hungary. Wednesday’s action is expected to be equally fascinating. You can follow everything on CBS Sports All Access.
The second day of action in the Champions League features Porto at home with Juventus and Sevilla against Borussia Dortmund in two attractive clashes with Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haaland on display.
Wednesday’s clashes have the potential to be fun in both the first and second legs, with a close first leg that should lead to exciting conclusions next month, although Tuesday’s are expected to do so before both. outside teams accelerate away from the hosts.
Here’s a closer look at the second day of the round of 16 action.
Gladbach reveals planned change of coach in Dortmund
It is never ideal when the story before a big game revolves around a change of coach, but that is the situation Dortmund finds themselves in before the confrontation with Sevilla at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. After firing coach Lucien Favre, Dortmund had a difficult start to life under interim coach Edin Terzic, with four wins, three losses and two draws in all competitions in 2021.
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It is not surprising that Dortmund is planning for life after Terzic, however, BVB seemed unprepared for Bundesliga rival Borussia Monchengladbach to announce that their head coach Marco Rose has agreed to move to Dortmund this summer. summer. But that’s what they did on Tuesday.
Dortmund’s silence on the radio since the statement by fellow Champions League representative Gladbach is not an ideal preparation for a game that was already going to be quite difficult, with the potential to upset the players and Terzic.
Sevilla are one of the best teams in Europe at the moment, with nine consecutive wins in all competitions and seven clean sheets, with 18 goals scored by just one conceded, while Dortmund is struggling to recover with two wins in the last seven games and one of them required in extra time. And they’ve added some attack power since they last appeared in the Champions League. During the January transfer window, they acquired Papu Gomez from another competitor in the Champions League Atalanta, the kind of creative spark of attack that could very well be the missing piece for a disciplined Sevilla team.
The German attack led by Haaland against the Spanish defense commanded by the requisite Jules Kounde will be one of a series of intriguing battles to keep an eye on, while a weary USMNT talent, Gio Reyna, could play a role for the visitors. Despite being a regular at Dortmund, the teenager has already been two months since the last goal on December 12 and even longer since the last assist on November 28.
Old winners
Porto’s clash with Juventus at Estádio do Dragão pits two Champions League winners against each other, with the Portuguese being the most recent title in 2004.
However, the two teams are not in the best shape at the moment and are in the unfamiliar position of not being in the lead of their national leagues with Porto at 10 points from the pace set by Sporting CP and Juventus eight points behind in fourth, but with a game in hand to close the gap in new Inter Milan leaders.
In this game, Cristiano Ronaldo returns to his native country, Portugal, which is always an event, but neither team has won in the last two games in all competitions with the hosts, in a series of four consecutive draws.
The stars will be on display with Alvaro Morata as one of four players with six goals so far in this edition, as well as Dortmund’s Haaland, and Ronaldo is not far behind them with four.
Both teams will feel they could have achieved more difficult draws and the Italians will try to take advantage of being at home for the second leg.
This will also be of interest to USMNT fans, with Weston McKennie likely to play a significant role for Juventus as his development continues after winning his first title with Supercoppa Italia earlier this year. McKennie has benefited immensely from exchanging Schalke’s chaotic environment in Germany last season with elite teammates in Torino now. He’s scoring twice the rate, going from 0.13 goals every 90 minutes to 0.27, averaging 0.18 assists every 90 after not registering any last season. With strikers like Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata in front of him and defenders like Leonardo Bonucci and Matthijs de Ligt behind him, the young American really flourished in an action-packed midfielder at the top of European football.