The status of the players in the application plays no role.
We continue to prepare for the first matches of the playoffs of the main European Cup. Today is the final stage 1/8 Champions League he will open with Milan and Tottenham, as well as Paris Saint-Germain with Bayern. Tomorrow night’s main game is between Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea.
Good to know about Borussia Dortmund
– Dortmund shocker returned to games after a break for world Cup-2022. The season in the Bundesliga resumed at the end of January – and Edin Terzic’s wards won 5 in a row, and also won 1 time in the Cup against Bochum. Now Borussia, together with the Berlin Union, make up the group of closest pursuers of Bayern (leading the league). The gap in points between the competitors is minimal: the “gialloni” with 40 points after 20 rounds close the top 3 and are only 3 points behind the Monaco team. After the meeting with Chelsea, Dortmund will have matches with the teams from the basement of the German championship table: Hertha and Hoffenheim.
– The German giants passed the group stage of the Champions League in class – the team realized that they were inferior to Manchester City and did not chase after the first line. And at the same time he wisely took advantage of the crisis of Sevilla, another playoff contender. Champions League. As a result, after duty 3:0 with Copenhagen and 1:2 from SM Borussia scored 4 points in two games with the Spaniards, drew with the “citizens” and the Danish club and took second place.
– In Dortmund they managed to outline a new talent who will follow in the footsteps of Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham. Borussia Dortmund have signed Belgian winger Julien Duranville from Anderlecht, who at 16 is valued at €5m by Transfermarkt. By the way, Jude himself is still not going anywhere. Before the transfer window opened, there were many rumors about the fight for the player between Manchester City, Liverpool, Real Madrid. However, in the end, the whole month of January passed in silence for the young Englishman. The footballer spent this time in matches: he regularly appeared in the starting lineup, scored one goal and three assists in five meetings and added discussions to his team in transfer negotiations.
Estimated composition of Borussia (4-2-3-1): Male – Guerreiro, Schlotterbeck, Süle, Ryerson – Can, Bellingham – Brandt, Royce, Reina – Aller.
Good to know about Chelsea
– There are big doubts that at present Chelsea will be able to qualify even for the quarter-finals of the Champions League. In the fall, the “aristocrats” calmly went through the season, returned to first place in group E of the European Cup and entered the top 5 of the English Premier League. At the same time, the preconditions for a serious decline began to be traced in November – then the Londoners lost 4 out of 5 matches before world Cup-2022. After the resumption of the season, the club’s statistics did not improve: 2 wins in 9 games.
– It is quite clear why this is happening. The new owners of the English giant are changing clubs too aggressively. The whole management changed immediately and new specialists need time to adapt and there is no one else to help with this. In the winter transfer window, Chelsea bought for 363 million euros – some players were also bought for those positions that did not need to be strengthened (Badyashil now competes in central defense with Koulibaly, Chaloba and Silva, Felix – with Aubameyang, Havertz , Broya on the edge) . The most striking impression was made by the deal with Shakhtar on Mudrik – the left winger, of course, was needed by the Blues, but 70 + 30 million euros is too much money for a young Ukrainian. And even after such a huge purchase, the “aristocrats” found 121 million, which they allocated for Benfica for Enzo Fernandez.
– Strengthening will, of course, help the team in the future. But such cardinal updates in the main clip are not done in a window, otherwise teamwork suffers greatly. This is what we see in match results. At the same time, according to rumors, nothing threatens the coach of the English giant Graham Potter: the club’s managers consider the Englishman one of the best specialists in the world and intend to evaluate the results of his activities after several years. Graham’s position at Chelsea is also said to be unaffected if they fail to qualify for the Champions League at the end of the current season.
– Graham Potter gradually finds a place at the start for newcomers, but the results are not at all encouraging – until they play well and get fit, they won’t have to fight for victory in the Champions League.
Indicative composition of Chelsea (4-3-3): Arrizabalaga – Cucurella, Badiaxil, Silva, James – Mount, Fernandez, Gallagher – Mudrik, Havertz, Sterling
Good to know about the comparison
– This match is even more interesting because the teams have never faced each other before. There is simply nothing to say about the history of this match.
Soccer.ru Prediction: the first match of the round of 16 will be held at the Borussia stadium – at home, Dortmund have suffered only one defeat for the entire current season (in August from Werder Bremen). Their teamwork also speaks in favor of the Giallorossi: they have a much better chance against the still raw Chelsea. Both teams are attack oriented so expect a record breaking match. And let’s bet on Borussia’s victory: matches are not won by name alone and team interactions with the German giant have been established for some time.
