Champions League 2012-13: Before the first leg of the quarterfinals, Part II

Real Madrid and Galatasaray generate the most uneven tie of the Champions League 2012-13 quarterfinals. The most interesting about this clash is that the two Champions League topscorers Cristiano Ronaldo and Burak Yilmaz are going to meet each other. Real and Mourinho are getting ready to part from each other. The Portuguese coach lifted the class of the team to win everything possible at home, outplay Barcelona, and become one of the main title candidates in Champions League. But the spell will not be complete without the prestigious European trophy. Considering the fact that Real has lost the hope to win the domestic league, the reason they play football this spring is only winning the Champions League. The team doesn’t lack anything. They have only top class players in their squad. The form they are in lets them hope for the best.

Galatasaray is, on the other hand, the weakest team left in the tournament. Although the team acquired Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder last winter, Fatih Terim hasn’t had more resources to build a higher-level team. They do well at home, being very close to the league title, and they could have been a strong favorite to win the Europa League, but the round of 16 and quarterfinals of the Champions League are the limit for the Turkish champions.  

Real had the strongest opponent in the round of 16, when only the last 30 minutes of the second leg match decided the destiny of the quarterfinal tickets. It is difficult to say how the match would develop if not Nani’s expulsion, but Mourniho’s side had not much to demonstrate before this. Manchester United had accurately blocked all the roads leading to its goals, so Real was wandering around and thinking about a solution. Probably we would see some open football, as Real showed in the last minutes of the opening match against Manchester City back in September. But now they suddenly had to finish the job started by the Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir. And they were great in this. Mourinho sent Luka Modric into the battle, thus making the most correct decision ever. The Croatian immediately took the ball and illustrated some great vision only Pirlo can boast. He scored, too. The rest of the match after Ronaldo’s 69^th minute goal was just about waiting for the final whistle.    

Galatasaray had also registered a 1-1 score at home and had to play better in the second leg. As it usually happens in the matches with Galatasaray, there are lots of attacks organized by both sides. Schalke scored first, but the pressure from the Turkish side was too strong to stand. The quarterfinalist was decided on the 37^th minute, when the extramotivated Hamit Altintop scored from a free-kick and destroyed the mood in his former club. Fatih Terim’s side took the advantage of this and scored the second very soon. The second half task was about not conceding twice. With Schalke 04 being in a bad form and missing some crucial players, this was not too tough to do. Schalke scored one, but they could not do more. Especially useful were Drogba’s defensive skills obtained in the last year’s Champions League.

Altintop has to score against another of his former clubs. But Real is unlucky to enter a turbulent fight with Galatasaray. They will probably try to take the ball and block every move of Sneijder, Drogba and Yilmaz. At least two of them are more than familiar to Mourniho, so this is not going to be hard to do. Conceding is forbidden unless Ronaldo scores a hat-trick. Galatasaray will have huge problems in defense, which hasn’t been great against weaker opponents either. The only chance Galatasaray has got is to listen to Drogba’s legends about Chelsea’s heroic defending against Barcelona and Bayern last year. Let’s see how good the Turkish players are in this.    

Malaga and Borussia are the last participants of the quarterfinals. As in Real’s case, Borussia has got nothing left to fight for in the domestic league, so the advancement in Champions League is the target of the season. The same can be told about Malaga, although the team will still need to secure a place in the next season’s Champions League. Both of the teams are capable of showing some great performance, but great performance means something completely different for these teams. Borussia is a team with a strong accent on attack, while Malaga will never attack if the defensive problems are not solved.

Borussia’s attacking characteristics were brightly demonstrated against Shakhtar in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16. Here Lewandowski played a fantastic match, opening space for teammates and asking for passes from them. Dortmund found the weakest points in opponent’s defense and simply utilized them. Especially impressive was the way they attacked from the right wing.

Malaga had a different type of a match after they had lost 0-1 in Portugal. The Portuguese side had no intentions to go forward and score. After half an hour of introduction, Malaga understood that luck is not the best friend to trust. They started to act. A goalless score would be too hard to break in the second half, as Porto was determined to continue with the defensive tactics. But the pressure worked out. Malaga took the initiative for the first time during 120 minutes of the two-match tie, and got rewarded. First they were stolen a clear goal on the 39^th minute, but Isco’s wonder strike was too good not to stand. The half-time speeches of the coaches were now changed. The teams were still not eager to run forward until the 49^th minute dismissal of Steven Defour. And then it got easier for Malaga. The final score was 2-0 – enough for a quarterfinal place.

Now because the match is in Malaga, the teams have to show something different from what they are good in. Malaga has to attack and Borussia will need to defend. But Borussia is very good in counterattacks, having quick players like Reus, Goetze and the Polish trio Piszczek-Blaszczykowski-Lewandowski. Borussia is not the team to defend for the whole match, so Malaga’s Isco and Joaquin will surely create some chances, but the most important for Pellegrini’s team will be not conceding. I don’t think Klopp will have anything against a draw in Spain. The answers to the main questions are going to be given in Dortmund, so let’s watch how the ground for that second-leg match is going to be built.