Photo courtesy of Tvdar
The second Champions League semi-final sees current Bundesliga high-flyers Borussia Dortmund take on nine-time European Cup winners Real Madrid Wednesday night in the Signal Iduna Park.
After Tuesday’s fascinating encounter involving Bayern Munich and Barcelona, this game has a tough act to follow, but could be equally as entertaining. In the pulsating, vibrant atmosphere of the Allianz Arena, Bayern Munich served up a four-goal thriller, yet Wednesday’s clash has the potential to be even more of a goal fest.
Madrid are blessed with an attacking quartet to rival any team in Europe and the back line of Dortmund had better be ready to repel the white waves that will be battering against them later. Gonzalo Higuain will likely lead the attack with Angel di Maria, Mesut Ozil and the goal machine Cristiano Ronaldo as the supporting cast. Marcelo is still injured, so Fabio Coentrao will replace him at left back.
Dortmund are expecting to start the Munich-bound Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski,with Marco Reus and the recently-recovered Jakub Blascykowski in support. Mats Hummels has shrugged off his latest injury too and is expected to start alongside Neven Subotic in defense.
These two teams play with a very similar style, both fluid and expansive. Both are counterattacking experts and have players coveted by some of Europe’s biggest teams. But who has the edge?
Madrid are certainly the favorites in the eyes of the bookmakers as they have their iconic talisman Ronaldo, but that doesn’t mean this will be an easy ride and that they will just sweep the Germans aside. Dortmund have scored 74 league goals this year, second only to Bayern Munich.
On the other hand, Madrid having found the net 83 times in the league, so it’s unlikely that there’ll be a shortage of goals in this clash.
The other interesting battle that’ll be on display will be that of the managers, Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho. The two tactical geniuses of their respective leagues will desperately be trying to outsmart each other and it’ll be interesting to see who blinks first.
Mourinho has been known to favor the 4-2-3-1 formation at Real Madrid, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him switch to a 4-4-2 with Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso dropping deep to stifle Dortmund’s supply lines. Though, the switch to this formation would mean dropping Ozil, who has been influential recently, and Mourinho isn’t one for dropping performing players.
Klopp is similar in his choice of formation to Mourinho in the fact that he also favors the 4-2-3-1, however he will be more reluctant to switch as he has an overabundance of defensive midfielders and a limited amount of attacking midfielders. Therefore, expect Klopp to play Lewandowski as a lone striker with Gotze in support behind.
No doubt about it — this will be a fast-paced, attacking game with two of the greatest managers on the world stage and two of the best forward lines going head-to-head for a place in the Champions League final.
It doesn’t get much bigger than this.
James Hilton is a soccer writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter , Facebook or add him to your network on Google
