Champions League Quarterfinals Preview

VfL Wolfsburg – Real Madrid

The VfL Wolfsburg recently made more headlines beside the pitch rather than on it, after Max Kruse was publicly criticized for his extravagant lifestyle and Nicklas Bendtner was suspended from the club. They form has been very bad in the past games, playing a draw against Darmstadt and losing 3:0 to Bayer Leverkusen who were kicked out of the europa league by Villareal previously. The 2nd from the Bundesliga of the last season is only on the 8th place currently. Real Madrid on the other hand is on a streak of six wins in a row, winning the Clasico against Barcelona on the weekend.

Although playing better in the Champions League, Wolfsburg doesn’t operate like a team very much this season, mostly winning because of the quality of single players. Klaus Allofs, Club Manager of Wolfsburg, stated in an interview on the weekend, they are optimistic and already know the weakspots of Real. Presumably they will play a defensive 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-2-1 formation. Naldo and Bas Dost might be fit again for the match. Missing is Sebastian Jung. Apart from Raphael Varane all players are to the disposal of Zinedine Zidane, who will probably play the standard 4-3-3 offensive formation with Ronaldo on the left- and Bale on the right-wing. All in all, a win from Wolfsburg would be a very big surprise.

Paris Saint-Germain – Manchester City

This might be the most interesting match of this seasons quarterfinals, as both teams are nearly on the same level. While PSG is already this year’s Ligue 1 champion, Manchester City doesn’t have a chance anymore to become this years Premier League champion. Therefore both teams’ focus lies on the Champions League. Kevin De Bruyne returned on the pitch last weekend and scored during the 4:0 win over Bournemouth. Still missing is Vincent Kompany and Raheem Sterling. Joe Hart is expected to return to the goal for Manchester.

PSG will only be missing Marco Verratti but they can rely on Ibrahimovic who scored three goals again on the weekend against OGC Nice. Up to this point he has scored 38 goals and 16 assist in 41 games! Although Manchester City lost a great deal of games this season against Chelsea, Leicester and most recently, the derby against Manchester United, it is safe to say, that they will be top motivated against PSG and I am certain, we will see a game with two top teams at their top of the game.