4/11/2024–|Last updated: 11/4/202403:55 PM (Mecca time)
Tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday, the fourth round of the new edition of the European Champions League will begin, which will witness several heavy-caliber confrontations.
On Tuesday, attention will turn to Anfield and Santiago Bernabeu stadiums to watch two high-caliber matches, the first between Liverpool and its German guest Bayer Leverkusen, and the second between Spanish Real Madrid, the defending champion, and its Italian guest, Milan.
The match, which will be held at Anfield, will witness a fierce struggle between Liverpool and Leverkusen, especially since the winner will temporarily top the standings, at least for 24 hours.
Liverpool is in second place with 9 points, on goal difference behind Aston Villa, while Leverkusen is in sixth place with 7 points, on goal difference behind Manchester City, Monaco and Brest Stadium.
The current edition is held with a new system, where the group stage has been replaced by the league system. Each team will play 8 matches, and the first 8 teams will advance to the round of 16, while the teams that occupy positions from ninth to 24th will enter the playoff to qualify for the round of 16, with the eight winning teams advancing from the playoff to the round of 16.
The confrontation between Liverpool and Leverkusen has great emotions, especially since Xabi Alonso, Leverkusen’s coach, was a former Liverpool player, and was a candidate to coach it last summer to succeed Jurgen Klopp, but the coach preferred to continue with Leverkusen.
Alonso said about returning to Anfield, “It is the Champions League. At Anfield there is nothing better than that. Liverpool is one of the best teams in the world. It will be a great challenge.”
Although the winner of this confrontation will top the rankings for at least 24 hours, the importance of the match lies in the fact that its winner will come very close to qualifying for the final price directly.
Therefore, Arne Sloat, Liverpool coach, and Alonso will exert their striking power in this match in order to collect all its points to move one step closer to qualifying for the next round.
Real Madrid and Milan
On the same day, Italian coach Carlo Anceolti will also have an emotional match, when he leads Real Madrid to face his old team, Milan.
This match is widely followed by football fans due to the great history of the two teams in the tournament, as Real Madrid has won the title 15 previous times, and Milan has won 7 titles.
Every step counts on the road to #RealMilan 🏃♂️🔴⚫#UCL #SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/yxPgUkeWhu
— AC Milan (@acmilan) November 3, 2024
But the duo’s start in the tournament this season was not good enough; Real Madrid is in 12th place with 6 points gained from winning two matches and losing one, while Milan is in 25th place with 3 points gained from winning one match and losing two matches.
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But after Real Madrid won its last match in the tournament over Borussia Dortmund 5-2, the team regained confidence, and the team is striving with all its might to win over Milan in order to return to the circle of competition for the places that directly qualify for the final price.
Milan’s situation is not much different from Real Madrid, as the team was able to achieve its first victory in the tournament in the last round at the expense of Belgian Club Brugge 3-1, and the team will look forward to achieving a positive result against Real Madrid in order to renew its chances of going far in this tournament.
Ruben Amorim, the current Portuguese coach of Sporting Lisbon, will have the opportunity to find out what awaits him when he officially takes over as coach of Manchester United later this month, when his team hosts Manchester City tomorrow, Tuesday. Lisbon is in eighth place with 7 points.
On the other hand, Manchester City, led by its Spanish coach Pep Guardiola, is seeking to win this match in order to avoid suffering a third loss in a row in all tournaments, as Manchester City lost to Tottenham 1-2 in the League Cup and to Bournemouth 1-2 in the Premier League.
Manchester City occupies third place with 7 points, and Guardiola will aim to achieve victory in order to enhance his chances of advancing to the quarter-finals.
Germany’s Borussia Dortmund is looking forward to forgetting the sorrows of the great loss to Real Madrid 5-2 in the last round of the tournament, by achieving victory over Austria’s Sturm Graz.
In the rest of the matches that will be held tomorrow, Tuesday:
- PSV Eindhoven x Girona, Spain.
- Slovan Bratislava, Slovakia x Dinamo Zagreb, Croatia.
- Scottish Celtic x German Leipzig.
- French Lille x Italian Juventus.
- Bologna, Italy x Monaco, France.
The fourth round will resume the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, when Aston Villa, England, will meet its host, Club Brugge, Belgium.
Aston Villa is seeking to win this match in order to regain the top spot in the standings, which it will lose tomorrow, Tuesday, in the match between Liverpool and Leverkusen.
Aston Villa, the European Cup champion in 1982, is looking to achieve its fourth victory in this edition and move a step closer to qualifying for the quarter-finals.
The most prominent meeting of the day will be the match between Inter Milan and its English guest, Arsenal.
Bayern Munich is seeking to correct its course in the tournament when it meets its guest, Benfica of Portugal.
Bayern is in 23rd place with 3 points, and has lost in its last two matches in the tournament, and Vincent Kompany, the team’s coach, hopes to achieve victory over Benfica, so that this match will be the team’s beginning to return to victories in the European Championship.
In the rest of the matches:
- Shakhtar Donetsk, Ukraine x Yang Boez, Switzerland.
- Crvena Zvidad of Serbia x Barcelona of Spain.
- Paris Saint-Germain of France x Atletico Madrid of Spain.
- Stuttgart, Germany x Atalanta, Italy.
- Dutch Feyenoord x Austrian Salzburg.
- Sparta Prague, Czech Republic x Brest Stadium, France.
