After yesterday's contest, Champions League continues in full motion tonight with the clashes Roma vs Real Madrid and Gent vs Wolfsburg.
The derby of the night would definitely be the match between Roma and Real Madrid. Both teams show a top form in their last matches and it is hard to determine the victorious side of this clash. Even though the season did not start well for Real, they managed to return in the battle for winning Primera Division after the replacement of Rafael Benitez as a head coach by the former star of the club Zinedin Zidane. They are currently at the 3rd place and are only 3 points behind the first Barcelona. On the other hand, Roma seemed to have a wonderful season since they headed the standings in Seria A at one point of the season, but then everything flipped upside down and they started losing match after match. After Luciano Spaletti replaced Rudi Garcia everything was back to normal and Roma have now only one defeat in their last 13 matches. Roma is currently at 4th position in Seria A.
These two sides have played against each other a total of 8 times. Out of these 8 matches Real has won 4, while Roma was victorious in 3 and they have one draw. The last time they met was in the 1/4 final in the 2008/9 season when Roma won the two matches with 2:1. We should not neglect the fact that Real play with a great difficulty against Italian teams. The last time they eliminated an Italian team was in 1987/8 season when they eliminated Napoli. Since then, they have lost all 8 clashes against their Italian rivals.
Both teams have injured key players which may affect their performance. For Real Bale and Pepe would not be available for the match. Marcelo may miss the match either. For Roma Torosidis, Totti, and De Rossi have injuries, but they may recover for tonight's match.
My prediction is that we would have 2 really tough matches in which both teams would score a goal. It is really possible that the match in Rome is a draw. However, I think that in the second leg Real would defeat Roma and would advance to the next stage of the tournament.
Promo for the match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Ovgo8mi70
The other match for tonight is Gent vs Wolfsburg. Gent's fate seems predestined in this clash since Wolfsburg definitely dispose of much more experienced and skilled players such as Schurle, Draxler, and Dante. However, Gent is currently in a better form since they won their last 7 home matches and are 1st in Belgium's Pro League. On the opposite side, Wolfsburg demonstrate a hesitant performance winning only 1 of their last 8 matches and losing 4. They are currently 8th in the German Bundesliga.
To reach the round of 16, Wolfsburg had to win their hard group in which they were claimed for outsiders in the company of PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, and CSKA Moscow. They won 4 of their matches and lost 2. Similarly, Gent were outsiders in their group even though it was easier. They, however, managed to finish second, just behind Zenit and eliminated Valencia and Olympique Lyonnais. The Belgians won 3, and lost 2 matches finishing 4 points ahead of the 3rd Valencia.
My prediction is that even though Wolfsburg are considered favorites for the upcoming matches, it would be much harder for them than most people think. Gent has big chances to win tonight and if they manage to keep a clean sheet, they may eliminate Wolfsburg. It is really possible that there would be extra time in the second match. It is important to note, however, that Wolfsburg's bad performance in the Bundesliga does not mean anything for tonight's clash since Champions League is a completely different tournament not only in terms of importance, but atmosphere as well of course.
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