monerozi5590:
EPL dominance in the Champions League is about to start again.

In the past Four seasons, the Champions League trophy has been shared between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Our dominance (Spain) is fading away slowly.


Madrid please make me happy today.

Miremoses1:
and if all 5 EPL should go through. Then it won't be funny for us.
Hope Madrid gets pass psg

monerozi5590:



We really need to take the game to PSG to night.

We need to press high up the pitch and try and dominate possession.

Miremoses1:
4 Tottenham players? You are wicked . Let's buy them all .but to me Toby, Lloris aren't Madrid material

Melvyn11:
Jesus psg are so over hyped. Apart from Neymar that team is weak. Madrid go to trash them.

monerozi5590:



We really need to take the game to PSG to night.

We need to press high up the pitch and try and dominate possession.

jamescross:
PSG might be over hyped but they also have a better 9 than us and that could also count. I hope Cavani is in his wasteful ventures today. I would go with a 4-4-2 today anyway zizou should just pick the appropriate 11 to win us this game with a clean sheet. pressing high up the pitch would expose our 'annoying' defenders to the same counter attacks we have been conceding goals by. those silly errors they make. I get the point is to retain the ball and limit psg's time on the ball. I would prefer if we are efficient on quick attacks and hit them fast the way we are used to then control the game at later stages. pressing high up we make our defenders commit lots of fouls.

KinzyeWriter:


Real Madrid should find a way to have a stable back and casemiro to be outstanding today... Then success is near

Melvyn11:
Jesus psg are so over hyped. Apart from Neymar that team is weak. Madrid go to trash them.

SerVik:
Thread suddenly becomes lively and fans cocky because of a win against sociedad. Wow!

jamescross:
I agree I said it before the five out field players am backing to do us a big favour today 1. Varane 2. Casemiro 3. Ronaldo 4. Benzema not f'ing up and letting Cavani outshine him 5. Modric to bring in his A game today

I don't trust Ramos and Marcelo, maybe to cause a goal not to prevent one. my cards are open on Nacho, Kross has his days and Bale should not be making a mistake today for g sake.

Varane is our hope for a clean sheet, Casemiro that our midfield stay defensively solid and if it's a 4-4-2 Kovacic to show the genus in him.

Miremoses1:
Revealed: Why Mbappe snubbed Real Madrid for PSG


The 19-year-old had the chance to join Zinedine Zidane's side so why exactly did he reject the chance to play alongside his idol Cristiano Ronaldo?


Kylian Mbappe will line up alongside Neymar, Angel di Maria and PSG's other collection of stars at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night, but it could well have been an entirely different story.

The Ligue 1 side meet Real Madrid in arguably the tie of the round in the last 16 of the Champions League and, for Mbappe, it represents an opportunity to face a set of opponents who could have easily been his team-mates.

As has been well documented, and confirmed by coach Zinedine Zidane, Madrid were most definitely in the race to sign Mbappe in the summer of 2017.

So, what went wrong?

Madrid were European champions, league winners too. They possessed a French head coach who happens to be one the greatest players of all-time and, crucially you would've thought, they had Cristiano Ronaldo - Mbappe's childhood hero.

That's not to mention the impressive wages that would've been on offer from Los Blancos, the prestige of playing at the Bernabeu, the club's illustrious trophy-filled history, their Galactico ethos. The list goes on. It seemed Mbappe to Madrid was a no-brainer.

But, perhaps surprisingly to many onlookers, he still chose Paris.

Why? The main reason was the project, and the guarantee of regular playing time.

Mbappe, fresh from winning the league title with Monaco and announcing himself as one of, if not the brightest young talent in European football, had to be a pivotal part of the starting XI.

With the presence of Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema, Isco, Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio this was not something Madrid could offer. With a World Cup around the corner, that just wasn't good enough for Mbappe.

The next reason? Paris.

The French capital was where Mbappe was born and grew up. This was his city, and PSG was going to be his club.

As the man himself told Marca in December: "[Joining Madrid] would have been like a Real Madrid-supporting kid from Madrid having the chance to play for his team and deciding to go somewhere else, to another country."

And the final reason? Money.

That's not to say that Mbappe is motivated solely by monetary gains or that he smelt PSG and their cash coming from a mile off. Far from it.

The fact is that PSG are a financial powerhouse in the modern game and they were willing to pay a significant figure to make sure they got their man.


Madrid, for their part, couldn't, or at least chose not to, compete with PSG's riches. L'Equipe reports that the 19-year-old is the third-highest paid player in Ligue 1 and earns around €1.5 million per month.

That sort of money would've put this, albeit supremely talented, teenager with just the one league title to his name in the same wage bracket as the likes of Ronaldo and Bale.

That, financially and almost certainly with one eye on keeping their current mega stars appeased, just didn't add up for Madrid.

Mbappe's decision to swap Monaco for PSG certainly wasn't the spur-of-the-moment, hasty decision of a teenager who didn't really know what he was doing. Quite the opposite, in fact.

As Mbappe continues to star in the French league, Madrid fans will be left wondering what might have been. And, on Wednesday night, there's every chance he'll show Florentino Perez, Zidane and all those connected with the Spanish club exactly what they're missing.

Miremoses1:
So i heard thiago Silva will be dropped from psg starting line-up. How true is this

LordAdam16:


We'd find out in a couple of hours.

Did the rumor state the reason?

-Lord

Miremoses1:
So i heard thiago Silva will be dropped from psg starting line-up. How true is this

Rajmeista:


Thiago Motta not Silva

Miremoses1:
Verratti returns to the scene of his worst nightmares

The Estadio Santiago Bernabeu is probably not Marco Verratti's favourite football stadium.


The Italian midfielder has played there on two occasions and didn't have much fun on either occasion.

The first time was in October of 2015 when Paris Saint-Germain visited Real Madrid in the Champions League group stages and the midfielder had to come off injured after just 15 minutes.

Verratti was criticised after that experienced, accused of not being prepared for the biggest matches.

He then returned last September with the Italian national team and he was completely outclassed by the Spanish midfield in a 3-0 defeat.

Isco was particularly cruel to Verratti that evening, nutmegging him in spectacular fashion and dribbling past him on four occasions.

On Wednesday evening the player pursued by Barcelona last summer will return to Real Madrid's stadium and he'll hoping it will be third time lucky at the venue.

Fortunately for Verratti, Isco is expected to be on the bench, but it still won't be easy to stamp his authority in the middle of the field, with Casemiro, Luka Mordic and Toni Kroos going up against him.

Miremoses1:
I hope so. Which formation are you looking forward to. 4-3-3 or 4-4-2

monerozi5590:



Would go for 4 4 2 if i were Zidane...That will limit the potency and efficacy of Neymar and Mbappe to some extent.

Miremoses1:
Seems I was right after all. Silva out, isco in ahead of bale

Real Madrid vs PSG LINE-UPS: Isco starts as Bale sits on bench

The line-ups of Real Madrid vs PSG have been announced.


Real Madrid XI: Keylor Navas; Nacho, Varane, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo; Casemiro, Modric, Kroos, Isco; Benzema, Cristiano Ronald

PSG XI: Areola, Alves, Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Berchiche, L.Diarra, Rabiot, Verratti, Mbappé, Cavani, Neymar

Linkfield:



Let's trust Zidane on this.

Bale to be a super sub maybe