The 2018/19 UEFA Champions League action resumes on Tuesday evening. The pick of the round is the clash between Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Spain’s capital city.
Two weeks ago, the German outfit outclassed the Spanish side in Dortmund, winning 4-NIL. There’s a total of eight matches on Tuesday evening.
Atletico Madrid’s Diego Someone, was full of praise for the in-form Borussia Dortmund ahead of this evening’s clash. Atletico suffered a 4-0 defeat away from home two weeks ago.
However, the Spanish side have a good recent Champions League pedigree, having finished runners-up in 2014 and 2016. But Atletico will be without key players for this encounter.
On the other hand, Dortmund have maximum points in Group A so far, three more than the Spnaish side Atletico Madrid left back Lucas Hernandez says it’s just about collecting points.
“We are not looking for revenge. It’s an important Champions League game and I’m really looking forward to play another match in front of our supporters. We are raring to go and ready to give it our all.”
Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper, Roman Burki, says they are expecting Atletico to be more ruthless this time: “Atletico Madrid will be more aggressive and intense than the team we saw in Dortmund. They will surely try to keep us out. However we will be well prepared in order to resist them in this match too.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi could feature in the Champions League match at Inter Milan this evening. Messi was a surprise inclusion in the squad as he was expected to be out of action for three weeks after breaking a bone in his right arm on the 20th of October. Barca top Group B with maximum points, while Inter are second.
Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde says safety is key for Messi: “There are three or four possibilities. One is that he plays from the start, or he comes on, or he goes off. I can not anticipate any of these possibilities. What we won’t do is take any risks.”
Inter who have won their last seven Serie A matches, were comprehensibly beaten 2-nil at Barcelona in their previous Group B match two weeks ago. Inter Milan coach Luciano Spalletti says the match will test their abilities.
“This is the chance to see if we really can compete against any side. When we talk about Barcelona we talk about a squad that represents the highest level of difficulty that there is.”
In another UEFA Champions League clash tonight, English side Liverpool will travel to Red Star Belgrade, after winning 4-NIL at Anfield.
Juergen Klopp has decided to leave Swiss international Xherdan Shaqiri out of the squad, saying they were uncertain over what sort of reception he would receive.
Shaqiri, an Kosovar Albanian, scored the winning goal for Switzerland when they beat Serbia 2-1 at the World Cup in June and celebrated with a gesture which appeared to imitate the eagle displayed on Albania’s flag. Klopp says they are here to play.
“We have to cool the situation down because we cannot clarify that situation tonight and it’s not our job. We are in Serbia and we respect that with 100%. That’s why we’re here, to play football. We want to focus on that, that’s all. And because of the situation, people here all know better how the situation is, we decided not to bring Shaq (Shaqiri) here. And I said it, he’s our player, he will play a lot of games for us.”
Two matches will kick off at eight o’clock this evening, while the other six are scheduled to start at 10PM.
![[FILE IMAGE] A truck transporting water tanks.](https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SABC-News-Water-tanks-Dr-JS-Moroka-Local-Municipality-120x86.png)
