The lights of the football world are focused on Madrid and Milan, for the second “dish” of its quarter-finals Champions League to be served tonight. THE Real Madrid welcomes her to the “Santiago Bernabeu”. Chelsea in a meeting-repetition of this season, while at the same time in “San Siro” the Milan will face the extremely formed Naples.
The European champions come from a festive qualification against Liverpool, whom they crushed 5-2 at “Anfield” and eliminated with a victory in the second match (1-0) in the Spanish capital. The Merengues, after the Scottish shower they gave their fans with an emphatic victory over Barcelona at Camp Nou and a home defeat by Villarreal for La Liga, want to confirm their role as favorites against the Londoners. In the competitive part, Carlo Ancelotti will again be deprived of the services of Ferlan Mendy, who will be the only absentee.
Chelsea, on the other hand, want to make their fans forget their poor run in the Premier League with a very good run in Europe’s top club competition. The “blues” will also have new air on their bench as in tonight’s match Frank Lampard will make his second debut on the bench. The London team reached the quarter-finals by eliminating Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 with difficulty. In the competitive part, Chelsea traveled to Madrid without Aubameyang, Badiasil, Madueke, while the participation of Athpilicueta, Mount and Thiago Silva is also considered doubtful.
Possible lineups:
Real Madrid (Carlo Ancelotti): Courtois- Carvajal, Militao, Riedinger, Kamavinga- Kroos, Tswameni, Modric- Vinicius, Valverde, Benzema
Chelsea (Frank Lampard): Kepa- James, Koulibaly, Fofana, Chilwell, Koukoureja- Kante, Fernandes, Kovacic- Felix, Havertz
In the second match of the day, the “San Siro” will host the Italian civil war between Milan and Napoli. The “rosoneri” return to the quarter-finals of the top European club competition for the first time since 2007 when they won the trophy in Athens against Liverpool. In fact, in order to get here, the great Italian club had to get a big qualification in the double matches with Tottenham, whom they defeated 1-0 in Milan and “blocked” in London, leaving with 0-0. The only loss for Stefanos Pioli is Pierre Kaloulou who is suffering from a gastrocnemius injury.
As for Napoli, the motivation is very high as the looming scudetto win after 33 years gives them the right to focus on the Champions League as they find themselves in the top eight for the first time. The “partenopei” even want to respond to Milan after the heavy defeat at home with 4-0. In fact, the Neapolitans showed that they can deal with any opponent as in the round of 16 they eliminated the holder of the Europa League, Eintracht Frankfurt, with two wins.
The experienced Luciano Spalletti is looking to break the curse of being eliminated from the quarter-finals with a win, but will have to overcome the first hurdle without Victor Osimen who is struggling with a thigh injury problem.
Possible lineups:
Milan (Stefano Pioli): Menian- Calabria, Kier, Tomori, Hernandez- Benaser, Tonali- Dias, Krunic, Leo- Giroud
Napoli (Luciano Spalletti): Meret- Di Lorenzo, Rui, Kim, Rahmani- Angisa, Lobotka, Zielinski- Politano, Kvarachelia, Raspadori
Source: Sport Fm
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