The Estadio Santiago Bernabeu will host yet another great UEFA Champions League encounter when German side, RB Leipzig, pays UEFA Champions League giants, Real Madrid, a visit for the 2nd leg of the round 16 game between the two.
With the home team having a 1-0 advantage from the 1st leg, it is expected that Carlo Ancelotti’s side will get the job done and secure a routine qualification to the quarter-finals of the competition but the uncertainty and unpredictability of Leipzig means till the game ends, anything is possible as is the case in the sport of football.
Marco Rose and his RB Leipzig team will need to sort out their consistency issues quickly before the game kicks off because if they have any dreams of qualifying ahead of the record winners, they can’t send the form of 2 wins and 2 losses in their last four games to the Bernabeu.
Neither can they go to the Bernabeu, where Girona and Sevilla have suffered recently, and play as they did in 2 of their 4 most recent away games against Bayern and Stuttgart when they lost 2-1 and 5-2 respectively.
Real Madrid Will Always Want to Win the Champions League
There is probably only one club in the world that sees not winning the UEFA Champions League for one season as a failure and that is Real Madrid.
Lifting the UEFA Champions is always a target for Real Madrid every season and that is why they have won it more than any other side and have all the records in the competition to their name and this season will not be any different.
The bad news for RB Leipzig is that, a round-16 elimination in the UEFA Champions League is just not something that anybody at Real Madrid finds remotely acceptable and that they did not win it the season before means that they are going to have to make it to the fans by going a lot more beyond round 16.
There is a reason why the current defending champions of the UEFA Champions League, Man. City and Real Madrid are the only two teams to have a 100% record of wins in the competition this season.
Leipzig Can Play Without the Pressure of Favourites
The thing RB Leipzig does not have in common with Real Madrid is probably the thing that is going to help them the most when they face them at the Bernabeu and that is the tag of favourites and everything like the pressure that comes with it.
RB Leipzig have not been a constant historical presence and winners of the UEFA Champions League. As a matter of fact, it was not until recent years that RB Leipzig became a European-recognized team.
The German club find themselves 1 place and 1 point from the UEFA Champions League places in 5th in the German Bundesliga and while that might not be the expectations of their fans, it is not the end of the world for them and it would have been if that were Real Madrid.
Real Madrid is just a lot more levels ahead of the German club and that is just a fact, however, fortunately for them, that is the thing that might mean they can play the best of their football at the Bernabeu without that weight on their shoulders.
Match Stats
- Real Madrid and RB Leipzig have not drawn any of their last 3 matches against each other with the Spanish giants winning 2 and losing 1.
- RB Leipzig participated in some high-scoring meetings, with over 2.5 goals scored in their last 5 away matches in the Champions League.
- Real Madrid haven't lost any of their last 9 home matches in the Champions League, managing to score at least one goal in all of them.
You can check out the Real Madrid vs RB Leipzig UEFA Champions League game on MSport here:
https://www.msport.com/ng/web/sports/Soccer/International_Clubs_UEFA_Champions_League/Real_Madrid_vs_RB_Leipzig/sr:match:46295673?k=Real%20Madrid?EMA
