Monday, February 17, 2014


Manchester City - FC Barcelona - 2013/2014 UEFA Champions League, Round of 16
Date: Tuesday, 18 February 2014, 8:45 PM - 20:45 CET

It cannot be said that Bayer Leverkusen has managed well to time its form for the continuation of the Champions League. They probably have a wish to eliminate the renowned rival, but in the second part of the season Bayer oscillates and it can be said that has played more bad matches than good ones. They were firmly second in the Bundesliga but now two teams are dangerously close to them. One of them is Schalke, who defeated them on Saturday in Leverkusen which only confirmed that the Factory Team is not fit.
They started the second part of the season with a chance to win three trophies, but had made a mistake in the Cup and were eliminated by second division K’lautern. Thus, two consecutive defeats at home, which is not encouraging at all on the eve of this match. Coach Hyypia had rested stopper Toprak against Schalke and he now returns in the starting line-up, but there will be no Can because of yellow cards. Reinartz has recovered and he goes in the midfield, and Boenisch stays on the left flank.
Paris Saint-Germain team has no problems like its new opponent, although, it was too unexpectedly eliminated from the Cup. The Champions League and the domestic championship are more important for the Parisians, where they want to win trophies, and because of which a huge amount of money has been invested in this team. In the championship everything goes according to the plan, they are the leaders with five points more than second Monaco with whom they drew away two rounds ago. On Friday have routinely defeated Valenciennes at home by 3-0 where coach Blanc had expectedly changed the team for a little bit. He has at his disposal a large number of quality players and he maximally use it, so he changed six players as compared to the team that drew in Monaco and it hadn’t felt in the game at all.
In Leverkusen will probably run on the pitch a team that is closer to one that played in Monaco, as the opponent is much stronger than Valenciennes. It is possible that he will combine again, but it is quite certain that injured Cavani will not play, which is a handicap but Blanc has a number of excellent players at the striker position, and there is also Ibrahimovic who can alone solve the match.

Possible line-ups:
Bayer Leverkusen: Leno – Hilbert, Toprak, Spahic, Boenisch – L. Bender, Reinartz, Rolfes – Sam, Castro, Kiesling.
Paris Saint-Germain: Sirigu – van der Wiel, Alex, Thiago Silva, Maxwell – Verratti, Matuidi, T. Motta – Lucas Moura, Ibrahimovic, Pastore. 

Stadium: EBayArena, Leverkusen, Germany
Referee: Viktor Kassai
 
You can watch the match here: Link 1 , Link 2 [Live Scores]



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