Battle of familiar foes headlines Champions League bill: HumSub.TV
Battle of familiar foes headlines Champions League bill: HumSub.TV: Title-holders Real Madrid renew their long-time rivalry with Bayern Munich and Barcelona play Juventus in a rematch of the 2015 final when the Champions League quarter-finals get underway on Tuesday and Wednesday.
As if a combined 16 European Cups weren’t enough, clash between Real and Bayern will also offer an intriguing duel between master and pupil.
Zinedine Zidane’s transition from retired player to successful coach at Real owes a lot to his time at the club under current Bayern boss Carlo Ancelotti.
Come Wednesday, the former colleagues will face off in the first of two contests to determine which will guide his team to Europe’s final four.
Ancelotti led Real Madrid to Champions League glory in 2014 with Zidane as his assistant, a run which included thrashing Bayern 5-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals.
Two years later, it was Zidane’s turn to lift the European Cup as Madrid’s manager, just four months after taking the job over from Ancelotti’s short-lived replacement, Rafa Benitez.
Toni Kroos, who left Bayern for Real when Ancelotti was still in charge, gives credit to Zidane for taking Madrid back to the top.
“He has had a huge impact here. He brought positivity when he arrived and took us in a new direction,” Kroos said. “We are playing better football than before and that was rewarded when we won the Champions League last season.”
“They will be two fantastic games. This tie could easily be the Champions League final,” Kroos said.
Ancelotti has the chance to win the elite event with a third different club after earlier trophies with AC Milan and Real, and the confidence of Bayern is running high after a weekend 4-1 league demolition of Borussia Dortmund.
“We’ll have to shift up another gear on Wednesday,” winger Arjen Robben, along with midfielder Xabi Alonso, formerly of Real, said. “We’ll have to demonstrate from the off that our opponents won’t have a chance, and that we want to win the match.”
Already without Raphael Varane, Madrid saw Pepe suffer two fractured ribs in Saturday’s 1-1 derby draw with Atletico Madrid. Meanwhile, centre-back Mats Hummels is out after he injured an ankle in training on Sunday.
Barca return to the Champions League on Tuesday for their first match since their historic 6-1 victory over Paris St Germain that made them the first team to overturn a 4-0 first-leg loss in the history of the competition.
But the Catalans head into the rematch of the 2015 final they won 3-1 against Juve on the heels of a 2-0 loss at Malaga on Saturday. The defeat included a red card for Neymar and damaged their chances of retaining the La Liga title.
This is Barca’s 10th successive appearance in the quarter-finals, a record, but they are without the injured Rafinha and the suspended Sergio Busquets against opponents unbeaten at home since August 2015.
When asked if Barca’s latest domestic setback would impact the tie, Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri was dismissive.
“For me, it’s the same Barcelona,” Allegri told Italian media after seeing his own side beat Chievo 2-0 at the weekend. “That shouldn’t be considered, it doesn’t change anything. Barcelona are a team which is used to playing big matches like this.”
Dortmund will meanwhile shake off the Munich defeat quickly as they set their sights on the first leg of their quarter-final with Manchester City’s conquerors Monaco on Tuesday.
The tie brings together two of the most exciting attacking outfits on the continent, and Monaco were boosted by the return to their starting line-up of top scorer Radamel Falcao at the weekend — his goal secured a 1-0 win at Angers.
“It’s going to be a great game. We’ll have gotten the match against Bayern out of our heads by then and we’ll put in a different performance,” Dortmund midfielder Sebastian Rode said.
Monaco have scored a whopping tally of 133 goals in all competitions this season, including a bundle by teenage standout Kylian Mbappe.
The 18-year-old forward, newly capped by France, has netted 12 times in his last 11 games and 19 for the season. He scored in both legs against City in the round-of-16.
Thomas Tuchel’s Dortmund will look to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for inspiration up front, and it will be a special occasion for the forward against one of his old clubs.
Aubameyang played for Monaco on loan from AC Milan in the first half of the 2010/11 season, scoring twice in 19 appearances.
Surprise English champions Leicester City have reached the last eight in their Champions League debut and now face Atletico who beat them in their previous two European dates, in the 1997 UEFA Cup and the 1961-62 Cup Winners’ Cup.
Leicester come into the game on the heels of a thrilling 4-2 Premier League loss to Everton that ended Craig Shakespeare’s run of six straight wins as manager since replacing the fired Claudio Ranieri.
“We will brush ourselves down and we will be ready for Wednesday,” said Shakespeare who misses Captain Wes Morgan with a back injury.
Atletico are playing their best football of the season and got a big boost Saturday from Antoine Griezmann, whose late equaliser earned a draw at Real.
“They won the English league and now they are a different side to when the draw was made. It will be a difficult game, tough, against a team who are similar to us in many respects,” warned Atletico coach Diego Simeone.
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HumSub TV, Pakistan’s first EDUTAINMENT Channel, has been set up for not only those audience residing in Pakistan or overseas but the international community on the whole. The vision of the channel is to project positive image building of Pakistan and inculcate nationalism as per the vision of the founder of the nation.
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