Eintracht Frankfurt – Freiburg

Eintracht Frankfurt – Freiburg

After both teams losing their last games in the Bundesliga, Eintracht Frankfurt and Freiburg will meet at the Commerzbank-Arena, trying to do better. For Eintracht this season is not going well, while Freiburg still have a realistic chance to qualify for Europe next season. Let’s take a look.

Eintracht Frankfurt continued to lose even after the COVID-19 quarantine break. Adi Hutter’s team lost twice against Borussia M’gladbach and Bayern Munich, which makes us think that Hutter won’t be the manager anymore after the end of the season. Eintracht are clearly underperforming, being 14th in the table with 28 points. Reaching the Europa League 1/2-finals last year, right now Eintracht are in a run of five consecutive losses in the Bundesliga.

Freiburg on the other hand are still in a pretty good position to qualify for Europa League next season. At this moment Freiburg are 7th in the table with 37 points, just two points behind the 6th Wolfsburg. They have won just one of their last five matches in the league, though.

On Saturday Freiburg had a great chance to win against struggling Werder Bremen, but instead of this suffered a 0-1 defeat. Leonardo Bittencourt’s goal in the 19th minute was enough for the visitors to take the win.

Freiburg obviously need some kind of shaking up in order to improve. During the season this team proved that it’s good enough to qualify for Europa League. But most likely Freiburg won’t do it, if they don’t improve their current performance. That’s pretty much for sure.

Eintracht Frankfurt and Freiburg both need to win this game to improve their hurt confidence. The hosts can’t use the energy of the fans, but they need to remind themselves how good they were last season. Maybe this could help them to win against Freiburg on Tuesday.

RB Leipzig faces Tottenham Hotspur

RB Leipzig faces Tottenham Hotspur

RB Leipzig faces Tottenham Hotspur at the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig in a second leg from the Champions League 1/8-finals. The German team is in a better position after the result in the first game, but Spurs are not a team to be written off. We expect some dramatic moments on Tuesday. Let’s take a look.

Being hurt by too many injury problems, Tottenham Hotspur didn’t play their best Champions League game against RB Leipzig two weeks ago. The German side won the game with 1-0 after a penalty kick, scored by their star striker Timo Werner. After the game Spurs’ manager Jose Mourinho likened his team to “a gun with no bullets”.

Tottenham are currently without their two best strikers Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min, which is a huge problem for the Portuguese manager. In the first leg against Leipzig he put Dele Alli and Lucas Moura upfront, but both of them are not really pure strikers. Mourinho was right – he really didn’t have much of a choice in attack.

RB Leipzig on the other hand did what they had to do – they defended well and scored a crucial away goal which guaranteed them the win. But on Tuesday they must be cautious – Tottenham are hurt, but they are still in the competition. Jose Mourinho is a tactician with a vast experience, so we won’t be surprised if he creates some unique plan to turn the tie in his team’s favour.

Except Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min who we already mentioned, Moussa Sissoko and Juan Foyth remain sidelined for Tottenham. In the same time RB Leipzig’s manager Julian Nagelsmann can’t use Kevin Kampl, Tyler Adams, Ibrahima Konate and Willi Orban who are all injured at the moment.

Can Tottenham Hotspur survive in the Champions League against RB Leipzig? That’s the pretty good question we must ask now. Spurs lost the first game at home, but they have 90 minutes to turn things in their favour.

Atletico Madrid – Eibar

Atletico Madrid – Eibar

Atletico Madrid hosts Eibar in a game from the third round of the Spanish La Liga. After winning two wins in the first two rounds, Atletico will try to make it three in a row. Eibar on the other hand won just one point from the first two games.

Atletico’s start of the season was entirely in their own style. Diego Simeone’s boys won both of the game with their favourite result – 1-0. After the win against Getafe in the first round, Los Colchoneros did the same against Leganes far from home.

It was a tough game for Atletico at the Estadio Municipal de Butarque. Los Colchoneros had to wait 71 minutes before scoring a winner. The summer signing Joao Felix provided an assist which the substitute Vitolo turned into a goal.

Right now Atletico Madrid are second in La Liga with 6 points, being only behind Sevilla because of goal difference.

Eibar won just a point from their first two games in the league. Los Armeros lost against Mallorca in the first round, while in the second one they won a point during the visit to Osasuna. The game at El Sadar ended with a 0-0 draw, so both teams went home with a point. Eibar’s head coach Mendilibar put Sergi Enrich and Kike in attack, but they were not able to beat Ruben and score a winner. In the second half Mendilibar put Charles, Exposito and Pedro Leon on the pitch, but Osasuna’s defense stood well.

Atletico Madrid are the clear favourite against Eibar on Sunday, especially at their own Wanda Metropolitano. Los Colchoneros are eager to fight again for the title and the two wins in the first two rounds are proving that. If Cholo Simeone and his boys want to win the gold, they must win games like this at any cost.

Club Brugge – Atletico Madrid

Club Brugge hosts Atletico Madrid at the Jan Breydelstadion in Brugge. Let’s take a look.

For Club Brugge everything in this group is already pretty clear. The Belgians will finish at 3rd place, which will allow them to continue their European campaign in Europa League. Right now they have 5 points won in the group, being 5 points behind the 2nd Borussia Dortmund and 4 points ahead of the 4th Monaco.

The Belgians started their Champions League campaign with two consecutive losses, but after this Brugge managed to win 5 points in their next three games. In their last match they made a prestigious 0-0 draw during the visit to Borussia Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park.

Before the start of the competition, most people thought that Club Brugge are the weakest team in this group. But the Belgians showed everyone that they can play good football and achieve good results.

For Atletico Madrid this game is important, because the Spanish club could guarantee itself the first place in the group. Right now Los Colchoneros are leaders in the group with 12 points, being 2 points ahead of the 2nd Borussia Dortmund. If Atletico win at Brugge, they will finish as winners in the group. You can be sure that this is exactly what they want right now.

In October Atletico suffered a shocking 0-4 loss during the visit to Borussia Dortmund, but Cholo Simeone’s boys reacted pretty well to this, winning their next two games – against Dortmund and Monaco. In the last few years Atletico reached twice the Champions League final and now they will try to do it again. Their goal is winning the competition for a first time.

That’s what we had to say about the Champions League clash between Club Brugge and Atletico Madrid.

Lokomotiv Moscow – Galatasaray

Lokomotiv Moscow hosts Galatasaray in a match from Group D of the UEFA Champions League. Let’s see what we can tell you about these two teams before their clash at the Russian capital on Wednesday night.

Lokomotiv Moscow are the clear underdog in this group with 0 points won so far and a record of four defeats. Lokomotiv started their participation in the group with high hopes, but their performance so far is pretty awful. They have scored just 2 goals so far and conceded 11.

But they still have a chance to finish 3rd in the group and at least qualify for Europa League. Lokomotiv are 4 points behind Galatasaray at the moment, so a win against the Turkish side will ressurect their chances of finishing 3rd. If this happen, everything will be decided in the last round of the group stage.

These two sides already met once in Istanbul, where Galatasaray enjoyed a stellar 3-0 win.

In their previous game Lokomotiv Moscow suffered a heavy 1-4 loss against Porto at the Estadio Do Dragao. The Peruvian veteran Jefferson Farfan scored for Lokomotiv in Iker Casillas’ net, but Porto were just much better than them on this day.

Galatasaray are 3rd in the group with 4 points won so far. The Turkish champion needs to win this match at any cost, if they want to keep their chances of progression in the competition. Right now Galatasaray are 4 points behind the 2nd Schalke 04.

In their last game the Turkish side suffered a 0-2 defeat during the visit to Schalke at the Veltins-Arena. Since their win against Lokomotiv Moscow in the first round, Galatasaray are unable to win again.

These are our thoughts about the Champions League clash between Lokomotiv Moscow and Galatasaray. Who do you got?

Valencia – Young Boys

Valencia welcomes Young Boys at the Estadio Mestalla in a match from Group H of the Champions League.

Valencia still have some chances to progress to the 1/8-finals of the competition, but the Spanish side really needs to win this match. Right now Los Che are 3rd in the group standings with 2 points, being just 2 points behind the 2nd Manchester United. Depending on the result between Juventus and United in the other game, Valencia could be 2nd in the group after Wednesday.

Young Boys on the other hand are 4th in the group with just one point won so far. Theoretically they have a chance to progress, too, but the Swiss champions is clearly the underdog here.

Being an underdog didn’t stop Young Boys from winning a point against Valencia two weeks ago. The match in Bern ended with a 1-1 draw. Michy Batshuayi opened the score for Los Che after an assist from Carlos Soler, but Hoarau equalized for Young Boys after a well executed penalty kick soon after the start of the second half.

This was really disapointing for Valencia, because the Spanish side hoped to record a first win in the competition for this season. If they had won, right now Valencia would have been with the same amount as points as Manchester United.

As for Young Boys, they probably understand very well their role of an underdog in this group. For the Swiss team every point in this competition is prestigious. On the other hand, Young Boys are probably still hoping to finish at least 3rd in the group and continue in Europa League. But in order to do this, they need to start winning games.

These are our thoughts about the Champions League clash between Valencia and Young Boys at the Estadio Mestalla.

PSG – Crvena Zvezda

PSG hosts Crvena Zvezda in a match from Group C of the Champions League. This game is going to be played on Wednesday night in the French capital Paris. Let’s take a look.

PSG didn’t start the new campaign in the Champions League in the way they wanted. Thomas Tuchel’s team had a tough visit to Liverpool and suffered a 2-3 defeat at the Anfield. Thomas Meunier and Kylian Mbappe scored for the French champion, but a late winner from Roberto Firmino won all of the points for Liverpool.

This was PSG’s first loss in an official game for the new campaign. So far the Parisians are flawless in the Ligue 1, winning all of their 8 games so far. They currently have an advantage of 8 points ahead of the 2nd Lille, which is telling us that most likely they will win the title in France without any problems.

But of course, the big goal in front of PSG remains winning the Champions League for a first time. This is the reason why the club’s board spent so much money for new players and coaches during the previous years.

In their last game PSG enjoyed a 3-0 win during the visit to Nice. Neymar scored a brace for the champions, while Christopher Nkunku added one more for the visiting team.

Crvena Zvezda are the current champion of Serbia. They started their participation in the Champions League by winning a point after a prestigious 0-0 draw with Napoli at home in Belgrade. Zvezda were considered underdogs in this game, but they showed some quality against the Italian team and won a point.

PSG are a heavy favourite against Crvena Zvezda, of course. We expect to see the French club winning its first points in the Champions League for the season.