Real Madrid v Liverpool
Two huge football teams, evenly matched and difficult to pick a winner. Liverpool will have to put that Premier League slump behind them to beat this very talented, very dangerous Real Madrid team over two legs. But the signs are good after the win over Arsenal; a big step forward.
It was very polished, lot of pluses to come from that performance. The partnership of Phillips and Kabak is only getting a better, Fabinho restored to his usual position in central midfield and Diogo Jota up front, what an impact he had off the bench. Jota is one of the form strikers in Europe at the moment. Liverpool, from a mental point of view after last Saturday, are in a really good place going into the game in terms of confidence.
I think they can get a result. They will concede a certain amount of possession and be happy to sit reasonably deep and hope to counter. Real don’t have Sergio Ramos and will miss his leadership and personality on the pitch.
Liverpool will fancy that they can score given the quality they have up front. If you can have type of threat on the pitch at any given time, regardless of the opposition and where you are playing, you will always fancy your chances of scoring and I think Liverpool will score tonight.
They just have to be defensively resolute at the back and keep the dangerous Madrid attack out.
Manchester City v Dortmund
You have to respect a team that has somebody of the quality of Erling Haaland, probably the most prolific goalscorer in Europe at the moment. They also Marco Reus, Julian Brandt and Thorgan Hazard, players of real quality high up the pitch.
Yet, they have deficiencies in the defensive area of the pitch, and Manchester City should be able to exploit that. City are in a really good place at the moment and have been in a really good place for a long period of time, with a high level of consistency in their performance.
They are in the best position they’ve ever been in to go and win this competition. Defensively they are very secure with the acquisition of Brahim Díaz.
Kenny Cunningham was speaking on Morning Ireland.
Watch Real Madrid v Liverpool live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 7.30pm, with live updates on all of Tuesday’s Champions League action on rte.ie/sport.
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