In the first leg in 1/8 finals of UEFA Champions League Schalke 04 host Real Madrid at the Veltins-Arena.
These two teams have already met in the same phase of this competition last season and the team from Madrid was better side and beat Schalke 04 twice. In the first match Real smashed Schalke 1-6, while at home they had finished the job and took another win of 3-1.
Schalke play solid this season in Champions League. They finished at the second position in Group F where were Chelsea, Sporting and Maribor. In the Bundesliga they are standing at the 4th position and their main goal is to finish at top 4 and play in the strongest European football competition next season.
Possible line-ups:
Schalke 04: (3-5-2): Wellenreuther, Howedes, Matip, Nastasic, Uchida, Fuchs, Kirchoff, Hoger Barnetta, Moting, Huntelaar.
Real Madrid: (4-3-3): Casillas, Carvajal, Pepe, Varane, Marcelo, Kroos, Illaramendi, Isco, Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo.
For this match they will be without their first goalkeeper Fährmann (17/0 gk) and the second goalkeeper Giefer (2/0 gk), so on the goal line will be the third goalkeeper 19-years old Timon Wellenreuther (3/0 gk), who played only three matches in Budesliga this season.
Kolašinac (1/0 d), Goretzka (0/0 m), Draxler (8/2 m), Farfán (0/0 m) and Obasi (6/0 m) are all also out.
On the other side, Real Madrid is an actual European champion and they want to try to repeat the success from the previous season. After humiliated defeat in the city derby against Atletico Madrid (4-0), Real Madrid get back on the right way and beat Deportivo La Coruna in the last match in Primera Division.
Their best player Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t score on that match, but he will have the chance to do it tonight.
Real Madrid also have some problems with the absences and tonight they will be without Fábio Coentrao (7/0 d), Ramos (18/3 d), Khedira (11/0 m), Modrić (10/1 m) and James Rodríguez (20/8 m). But, they have many quality players that they can make two amazing teams.
From the latest info, Karim Benzema was unable to finish the last training so he’s doubtful. Depending on how Benzema progresses throughout the day on Wednesday, he could be replaced by Javier ‘Chicharito’ or Jesé.
Without any doubt, the visitors are big favorite to win go through in the 1/4 finals and it would be a big a surprise if they failed to do that. Schalke 04 have nothing to lose and I expect that they will try to make some good result at home ground.
Both teams to score is my betting prediction for this game.