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Champions League Preview: Group Of Death

Group of death action is back tonight as Real Madrid host German champions Borussia Dortmund and Dutch side Ajax make a trip to England to face Premier league champions Manchester City. Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax are all gunning for the top spot in the group and with just one point on the board, Manchester City and Roberto Mancini will have a point to prove at the Etihad stadium. Mancini will be hoping for a turn of events as he is desperate to avoid Champions league disappointment for the second successive season. 

Real Madrid will be looking for a revenge against Borussia Dortmund after suffering a 2-1 defeat in Germany only two weeks ago. That win for the Germans mean Borussia top Group D on 7 points, 1 more than Madrid, with Ajax on 3 and Manchester City on 1. 

 Team News: 

Real Madrid v Borussia Dortmund
 
Real Madrid will be without injured France striker Karim Benzema, who has a good record in European competition scoring 15 goals in his last 19 Champions League games when Borussia Dortmund visit as he has a thigh muscle problem. Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain, who has netted seven in the league but none in Europe so far, is the obvious replacement. Apart from that Real Madrid will have to deal with two injury worries ahead of the game. Fabio Coentrao has been missing since the middle of October and is not expected to return until the start of December. Brazilian Defender Marcelo picked up a broken metatarsal injury in mid-October and will not be back in first team action until January at the earliest.
 
Captain Sebastian Kehl was taken off with a broken nose during Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. Manager Jurgen Klopp said that he is training with a mask to protect his nose but remains a doubt. Borussia Dortmund are fortunate as they have only one major injury concern for the game. Defender Patrick Owomoyela is struggling with constant calf problems which have kept him out of first team action.
 
Champions league – group of death
Probable Starting Line-ups:
 
Madrid: (4-2-3-1): Casillas – Ramos, Varane, Pepe, Arbeloa – Alonso, Modric – Di Maria, Ozil, Ronaldo – Higuain.
 
Dortmund: (4-2-3-1): Weindenfeller – Piszczek, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer – Gundogan, Kehl – Reus, Goetze, Grosskreutz – Lewandowski.
 
Prediction: Real Madrid 3 – 1 Borussia Dortmund
 
Players and Manager Quotes
 
Jose Mourinho:
“It is a tough group and any point you get is good. Dortmund and ourselves are the best situated, but it is possible that City can collect more points in the second round of matches and come back. All the teams are under pressure. I’m worried about the whole Borussia Dortmund team. It is no coincidence that they have won the last two league titles in Germany or that they are top of the most difficult group in this season’s Champions League. They are a very strong team with very physical, quick players. If they reach the next round they will be candidates to win the trophy.”
 Jurgen Klopp:
“We have to pay attention to all the Real Madrid players. We are quite good on the wings and if we use our weapons properly then we can create problems for them. My players have a great mentality. There are 20 very good teams in the world, and Real Madrid are one of them, but we are up there too. Mourinho is a very good coach, one of the best – very funny and a great colleague too. We are not going to be frightened but we will have maximum respect for Real Madrid.”
 
Madrid midfielder Khedira:
 “Madrid will qualify and one other side, I’ll leave it open as to who but obviously being German it would be nice for me if it were Dortmund and I think they deserve to after winning two consecutive leagues, and they are doing well in the Champions this year,” he said.
 
Manchester City Vs Ajax 
 

Mancini will have a mixed news from his treatment room as still a large number of injuries for Roberto Mancini to deal with here as Micha Richards, Joleon Lescott, Maicon, James Milner, Jack Rodwell and David Silva are all out. Pablo Zabaleta and Javi Garcia both returned to the squad at the weekend and both look likely to be handed places in the starting lineup that will see Balotelli, Tevez and Aguero leading the attack up front.

 

Niklas Moisander returns to the squad having been suspended for the weekend’s 2-0 defeat against Vitesse with the Ajax manager Frank de Boer likely to start with the same starting eleven that beat Manchester City 3-1 at the Amsterdam Arena and the end of last month.

 

Probable Starting Line-ups:

Man. City (4-2-3-1) Hart –  K. Toure, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy –  Y. Toure, Barry- Nasri, Tevez, Kolarov – Aguero
 
Ajax (4-3-3) Vermeer – Van Rhijn, Alderweireld, Moisander, Blind – Schone, Poulsen, Eriksen – Sana, De Jong, Babel
 
Prediction: Manchester City 2 -1 Ajax
 
Players and Manager Quotes
 
Roberto Mancini was not in a good spirit last night as he came on to the reporters who were allegedly asking questions of whether he joined Monaco last summer. 

“I don’t understand why you continue to ask me (about) last year, last month. This is finished,” said Mancini, whose team currently sit bottom of Champions League Group D having taken just one point from three games so far. Why? Why, for which reason? Why do you continue to ask me: ‘Last year you had a chance to go’? I stay here because my work is here. I worked for two years. I built with the chairman and the owner, this team. We won three trophies in two years. For 50 years we didn’t win. Never.”

Gareth Barry:

“We have not performed to the best of our abilities in the Champions League and we have been found out.” Barry said. “We have been punished on nights when we have not been top of our game. But we have proved we can do it. This is the same set of players who won the league and that belief is still there. The manager has his own way of going about things, but as a group of players, we are going into these games believing we can win them and that we can win the Champions League.”

Ajax manager Frank de Boer:
 “We want to be in the Champions League after the winter break as well. All the teams in this group do, and of course they want to have the nine points out of the three coming matches. We will give it a go to try to get a result here. Some of these teams will lose points and we will know who at the end of the match. We are not going to throw it open but it is not our way to play defensively. We want to show the way we play at Ajax, whether it is at home or away.”
 

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