After the unbelievable spectacle that both teams provided in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tie at Anfield, Real Madid and Liverpool are set to meet again for the return fixture on Wednesday night, in the Spanish capital.
In the opening matchup , the Reds raced to an early 2-0 lead, before los Blancos came roaring back to win 5-2. Needless to say, Liverpool require a miracle in order to overcome that huge deficit, especially in front of as hostile an environment, as they are likely to face at the Bernabéu.
Following that first leg, both coaches were eager to point out that the tie was not yet over. Though each did so to varying degrees. According to uefa.com here is what they said: Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid coach: “Liverpool is a great team which made us suffer in the first half so I’d say that, unfortunately, this tie isn’t finished. No way.”
Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool coach: “I think Carlo [Ancelotti] thinks the tie is over. I think so as well at the moment. In three weeks [before the second leg] it might be different. We will go there to win, that’s all I can say.”
While Ancelotti needed to stress his respect for the opposition, Klopp employed a mix of realism and mind games, to on the one hand all but admit defeat, but the other to signal to both his players and the opponent that there might be hope yet.
When both coaches do such mental gymnastics to insist that there still is something to play for, it shows that they know that there is at the very least a 90% chance that the tie is indeed over.
That said, if there is a club in Europe that has a history of coming back against impossible odds, that team would have to be Liverpool. They did it in the 2005 final, when they were 3-0 down at halftime to Ancelotti’s Milan side and famously won the game on penalties. More recently, they overturned a 3-0 deficit from the first leg against Barcelona in the 2019 semifinals winning 4-3 on aggregate.

But first of all, the comeback in 2019 was at home and secondly today’s Liverpool side are not nearly as good as those iconic teams from the past that we just mentioned.
However, the Red’s 7-0 victory over Manchester United on March 5 in the Premiership must have given them a psychological boost, in terms of believing that they are capable of coming back from 3-0 down even at the Bernabéu.
Real Madrid will still be overwhelming favourites to advance to the quarterfinals. The defending Champions League winners must simply play their game without thinking about the first leg result.
Here are the projected lineups for both teams:
Real Madrid: Courtois; Carvajal, Éder Militão, Rüdiger, Mendy; Modrić, Camavinga, Kroos; Valverde, Benzema, Vinícius Júnior.
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Konaté, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Bajcetic; Salah, Gakpo, Diogo Jota.

After a first leg in which Inter just edged out a decimated Porto 1-0 at the San Siro, the two teams are set to meet again in the return fixture at the Estádio do Dragão on Tuesday evening.

In that first encounter, Romelu Lukaku scored the late game winner not long after the visitors had been reduced to 10 men. The referee sent off their star midfielder Otávio for a second yellow card. The latter will miss the second leg as a result. Needless to say, this is a big blow for Sérgio Conceição’s side, which had been affected by many injuries recently as well.

As of this writing, (before the weekend’s domestic action) Porto have won eight of their last 10 matches in all competitions, losing the other two. However, those losses came in the first leg and in the Portuguese league match that followed it against Gil Vicente. After that, they defeated GD Chaves 3-1. Meanwhile, Inter’s last 10 matches included seven victories, a draw and two defeats as well.

Since the first leg, the Nerazzurri suffered a 1-0 defeat to Bologna, before overcoming Lecce by a 2-0 score.

Also as of this writing, both teams are in a distant second place in their respective national leagues. Inter are a full 15 points behind runaway Serie A leaders Napoli, while Porto trail their archrivals Benfica by 8 points at the top of the Portuguese Primeira Liga.

With domestic league success not on horizon this year, both clubs will be all the more eager to make a possibly special run in the UEFA Champions League. The Italian side have last won Europe’s most prestigious club competition in 2010 and Porto’s latest triumph dates back to 2004. Despite the long wait, becoming champions of Europe is in the DNA of both of these continental sleeping giants.

The first leg was a tight affair and the second will likely be similar. As mentioned above, Porto will surely find the loss of the suspended Otávio difficult to compensate. But they will have a partisan home crowd cheering them on and lifting their spirits.

This seems to just about be a fifty-fifty match. It could go either way, Porto will have said home field advantage, while Inter will go into it with the most slender of leads from the first leg.

The projected lineups are as follows: Porto: Diogo Costa; João Mário, Pepe, Marcano, Zaidu; André Franco, Uribe, Grujić, Galeno; Taremi, Pepê.

Inter: Onana; Škriniar, Acerbi, Bastoni; Darmian, Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Martínez, Lukaku.


Bet: Under 2 Goal Asian Handicap @ 2.47

After a break in continental play for senior teams this past week, the UEFA Champions League returns to action next Tuesday and Wednesday.

One of the matchups on Wednesday evening is Tottenham Hotspur vs. AC Milan, where Spurs will hope to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg.

In that opening game in Milan, an early Brahim Díaz goal made the difference for the home side. Yet, it had been the English team that edged most of the offensive statistics in the game. It would certainly not come as a great surprise, if the second leg is a similarly tight affair that may well come down to extra time or even penalty kicks.

When it comes to history, Milan have a clear advantage as seven- time champions of Europe, while Spurs are still waiting for their first Champions League trophy. In recent years however, the side from North London were of course much more frequent participants in the competition than their Italian opponents. The highlight of this certainly was their trip to the Madrid final in 2019.

As of this writing, both teams occupy a top -four spot in their respective domestic leagues. While Spurs are in fourth place of the Premiership, (albeit four points ahead of Newcastle United who have two games in hand), the defending Italian champions are third in the Serie A. They go into their weekend fixture away to Fiorentina even on points with cross-town rivals Inter and just ahead of Lazio and Roma in fourth and fifth respectively.

Coach Stefano Pioli’s team are on a four-game winning streak in all competitions, which started after four consecutive losses. Tottenham on the other hand, had a consistently inconsistent season so far.

BET: UNDER 2.5 GOALS @ 1.85