The knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League began on Tuesday night with PSG completely outclassing Manchester United in England while Roma just found their way past Porto after 19 year-old Zaniolo made history with his brace.
Asides Zaniolo we also saw another youngster, Kylian Mbappe light up the Theatre of Dreams against England’s most successful side in the competition. Looking at today’s games and the trend since yesterday one name comes to mind – Jordan Sancho who returns to England tonight in blistering form against Tottenham Hotspurs at another magnificent stadium.
Jordan Sancho set for the big stage on home soil
Two exciting teams with a perfect blend of youth and experience come up against each other on Wednesday night at the magnificent Wembley Stadium as the race for a place in the last eight begins.
This promises to be an exciting game of football showcasing swift attacking and counter-attacking football despite the many injury worries on both sides. The home teams will be without their talismanic striker Harry Kane and Dele Alli; another goalscoring threat.
However, despite the absence of these two key players Spurs have continued to pick up crucial wins in the league courtesy of Son Heung-Min’s blistering form.
For Dortmund who sit top of the Bundesliga, they will be without the reborn and lethal Paco Alcacer and Marco Reus both in attack.
Having lost twice to the English side in the group stage of the 2017/2018 season, it remains to be seen how the free scoring Germans will set up to outwit their opponents this time with the talented Englishman, Jordan Sancho who makes a return to England tonight.
Both teams have surprisingly been evenly matched in previous meetings, with two wins apiece and no draws. However, in the last five games coming into this tie Tottenham have been on a better run of form with three wins and two losses while the German table toppers have had two wins, two draws and one loss.
Real Madrid bank on impressive record against Ajax
Ajax return to the knockout stage of Champions League for the first time since 2005/2006 season but have a mountain in Real Madrid to climb.
Madrid on the other hand have made the semi-final of Europe’s elite competition for eight seasons running and will look to keep up that trend as they travel to Amsterdam on Wednesday night.
Real Madrid have an impressive record against the Dutch side but will however have to dig deep to find a way past Erik Ten Hag’s men who are one of only five teams to qualify for the knockout stages of this season’s UCL unbeaten.
Ajax will also have the compliment of the Barcelona bound Frenkie De Jong who has been declared fit to start by Erik Ten Hag against the reigning Champions.
Ajax come into this game not in the best of forms with two wins, two losses and a draw in their last five. Meanwhile the holders have been resurgent in recent times with four wins and a draw in their last five games.
Also on past records, Real Madrid can boast of seven wins and a draw in the last twelves meetings between both sides while Ajax have only defeated the European Giants on four occasions.
Finally, just like we had yesterday there will be a minute’s silence observed in tonight’s UCL matches in total respect to Emiliano Sala, the Cardiff City forward, who lost his life in a plane wreckage.
