This Week’s Champions’ League Predictions!
By Sam McPhee
The 1st set of Champions’ League knockout stage fixtures start today & tomorrow. Europe’s premier club tournament renews with a tasty morsel of a matchup with Arsenal facing the current football/soccer maestros of Barcelona of Spain. Elsewhere, Spurs travel to the San Siro to take on perennial European power, AC Milan; Valencia host Bundesliga side, Schalke, & in what will likely be the underrated tie of the week, Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk travels to Rome to face Francesco Totti & the Giallorossi.
To the picks!:
TUESDAY’S MATCHES
AC Milan v Tottenham Hotspur
Chad AC Milan 3-Tottenham Hotspur 1
This matchup is between two sides laden with injuries. You could probably make up a pretty good squad with the injury lists between the two clubs but that is neither here nor there. This game will be won by those who actually step on the pitch and as cagey as managers are these days I can’t tell you who will or will not play. I can tell you though that Spurs will not be intimidated by playing in the San Siro having already taken on Inter Milan earlier in the Champions’ League group stage. This experience will help but I still predict that they will fall even though Spurs have looked like a different team when playing European football.
PS- As a Spurs supporter I’m doing some reverse psychology score prediction here.
Corey AC Milan 2-Tottenham Spur 1
Robinho & Zlatan Ibrahimović have been in pretty solid form of late for the Rossonerithough the Milanese club are struggling with injuries at the back. They were forced to bring in former Juve’ veteran, Nicola Legrottaglie to help bring numbers in defense & have even been playing all-energy, warhorse of the old guard, Gennaro Gattuso in a makeshift defense as of late. Rafael Van Der Vaart is coming off a slight injury & Gareth Bale will be missing through a back problem. Spurs’ strikers have been sorely inconsistent as of late so Spurs won’t have enough to get a result in this one for me.
Valencia CF v Schalke 04
Chad Valencia 2-Schalke 0
Schalke has had a rough go if it in the Bundesliga so far this season sitting at 10th in the table. They have played better of late but going on the road to face Valencia side that is unbeaten in their last 8 home matches is asking too much. This is “nicht so gut”, for Schalke.
Corey Valencia 2-Schalke 0
Roberto Soldado leads the troops (get it?) of Els Taronja to face the Bundesliga side, Schalke. As Chad mentioned above, Schalke have been struggling in the Bundesliga this season & on the road in Mestalla, they likely won’t be able to get the job done unless their Spanish legend & former Real Madrid star, Raúl, rekindles his glory years. His partnership with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is a dangerous one but I don’t think they’ll get a result on the road.
WEDNESDAY’S MATCHES
Arsenal v FC Barcelona
Chad Arsenal 2-Barcelona 2
You will be able to count on one hand the number of people who predict and Arsenal draw or win versus Barcelona and I am proud to be one of them. Barcelona has run rough shot over everyone in Spain but Wenger will not allow this to happen in London. Look for Arsenal to play well and Van Persie is almost guaranteed to score a goal given the form he is in. The only question is does Barcelona slip a contract offer in Fabregas’ back pocket during the match?
Corey Barcelona 3-Arsenal 2
This matchup, like last year’s, is a matchup for the purists of the beautiful game. There should be intricate passing & balletic movement all over the pitch in this one. Only problem for Arsenal fans is that for all our passing & movement, Barcelona do that at a Master’s level. Barca has been absolutely toying with opposition this year, bagging 4-0, 5-0 wins just for fun. This includes a 5-0 humiliation of arch-rivals Real. Expect Arsenal to take the lead but then watch Barca slowly dissect Arsenal’s backline with the precision of a surgeon before the Gunners make it interesting with a late consolation goal.
AS Roma v Shakhtar Donetsk
Chad Roma 2-Shakhtar 1
The Ukraine may be weak but Shakhtar is not! They can min this match in Rome but I predict the Yellow Reds will not allow that to happen since they dropped their match this weekend at home to Napoli. Look for Marco Borriello to bag his 5th goal in Champions League play so far giving Roma the slimmest of leads heading into the second leg.
Corey Shakhtar 2-Roma 1
I’m not sure what the spelling of Shakhtar would be if it were in Portuguese, or how to say sextuplet in Portuguese but the Brazilian sextuplet of Alex Teixeira, Douglas Costa, Fernandinho, Jádson , Luiz Adriano & Willian all provide firepower for the Girnyky(Miners). Add in Croat internationals, Eduardo & Dario Srna, Romanian Răzvan Rat, Czech Tomáš Hübschman & last but not least the Ukrainians of Oleksiy Gal & Dmytro Chygrynskiy, Shakhtar have more than enough to “steal” a result in the Olimpico against Il Prinicipe, Francesco Totti & the Giallorossi.