UCL Five Things: Eto'o & Ronaldo's Battle For Fitness, Cavani & Lewandowski In Limelight

On Tuesday night, 2 of the 4 teams that will take part in the Semi-Finals for the Champions League Trophy will emerge. Chelsea FC will host a Paris Saint-Germain side that beat them 3-1 in the first leg, while Borussia Dortmund will need to overturn Real Madrid’s 3-0 victory.

Chelsea Will Risk Playing SamuelAi??Eto’o

Samuel Eto'o - Chelsea could be forced to play him against PSG — “Eto’o didn’t play the first game, and I’m not sure he plays the second game” – Mourinho

While it is still unclear whether Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will even have the option of playing Samuel Eto’o against Paris Saint-Germain, it is apparent that it is a risk he is probably willing to take. Samuel Eto’o suffered a thigh strain in the 6-0 mauling of Arsenal FC, and has not featured since. He is racing to recovery, as he tries to be fit in time for the return leg against PSG. Normally, if a player is only returning to training the morning before a game night, most managers would avoid the risk of throwing them into a high-pressure game straight away. But it has become apparent over the past few months that Eto’o is the only striker in his squad whom Mourinho feels he can count on. In the previous leg, he chose Andre Schurrle to lead the line ahead of Fernando Torres and Demba Ba, both of whom Mourinho seems to have zero faith in.

“Fit, fit, I don’t think he (Eto’o) is. But play tomorrow, maybe.” – Jose Mourinho, sounding a bit like Yoda

With All Eyes On Lewandowski, Can Others Capitalise

Robert Lewandowski unlikely to single-handedly get 4 goals against Real Madrid again — Lewy unlikely to single-handedly get 4 goals against Real again

They say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice. But Borussia Dortmund fans will be praying that Robert Lewandowski will do a repeat of last season’s heroics, when he scored 4 goals against Real Madrid. Realistically speaking though, Real are bound to be much better prepared to handle the Lewy this time around, and so another 4 goal romp is unlikely.

Thankfully for Borussia, they are hardly a one-man team. Their squad contains a number of goal-scorers, many of whom could easily play for many of their European rivals. Marco Reus,Ai??Henrikh Mkhitaryan andAi??Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are all likely to feature, and each one of them is more than capable of scoring. In the 2012-13 season, for instance, Reus scored 19 goals for Dortmund, Aubameyang scored 21 forAi??Saint-Etienne, and Mkhitaryan scored a whopping 29 forAi??Shakhtar Donetsk. Even in 2013-14, the three already have 18, 16 and 9 goals to their name, respectively. With the eccentrically brilliant Jurgen Klopp at the helm, Borussia have a good shot at being able to leverage the quality in their midfield to overturn the 3 goal deficit they face.

Cavani Has A Golden Opportunity

Chelsea vs PSG - An opportunity for Cavani to make Zlatan's position his own — An opportunity for Cavani to make Zlatan’s position his own

Edinson Cavani is what you can call a ‘default big club transfer target’. That is, if any wealthy club (Chelsea, Real Madrid et al) is perceived to be looking for a new striker, Cavani’s name pops up by default. Why? Well, to put it simply, he’s one of the best forwards in the world who has been regularly played out of position in a League that is not counted amongst the best in the world.

Despite PSG and AS Monaco’s healthy spending (read: excessive splurging) on world class players over the last year, the French Ligue 1 is still counted as a lower competition when compared to the Barclay’s Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A and German Bundesliga. So when Cavani moved to PSG, he probably assumed he would be the star of the show, held up in the limelight and flaunted to the cheering masses. Except he has been promptly moved to the flank, with the central role given to the world’s most entertaining footballer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Cavani had only recently voiced his ire at this situation, indicating he would be forced to consider his future at the club if this continued.

Fate, it seems, has given him an opportunity. Zlatan Ibrahimovic will miss the return leg against Chelsea due to injury, so Cavani will get a run out in his favoured position. If he puts in a strong enough performance against the London outfit, Laurent Blanc will be forced to reconsider his team selections going forward. After all, building his team around a 27 year old Cavani makes more sense than counting on the longevity of 32 year old Ibrahimovic.

Real Madrid’s Broken Wing(er)s

Ronaldo & Bale are both recovering from injuries, so Ancelotti will have to pick his side against Dortmund with care — Ronaldo & Bale are both recovering from injuries, so Ancelotti will have to pick his side with care

Earlier, Jese RodriguezAi??suffered a knee injuryAi??that has effectively ended his season. In the first leg,Ai??Cristiano Ronaldo also hurt his knee, though he should hopefully be back in the saddle for the return leg. Now, in the 4-0 win over Real Sociedad, Gareth BaleAi??ended up requiring stitches onAi??- you guessed it – his knee. This means that Real Madrid’s wings, which are usually their greatest weapons, could be an area of worry.

In all likelihood, Bale and Ronaldo could both be available for selection. But with a 3 goal lead from the first leg, would Carlo Ancelotti want to risk both his prized assets? The two have 19 goals between them in this season’s Champion’s League, which is around 60% of Real Madrid’s total tally in the competition. With both the European and La Liga titles in the balance, Carlo might have to consider resting atleast one of the two players. In their stead, he may choose to play Isco, who isn’t a natural wide-man, or Angel Di Maria, who has been used in the 3 man central midfield of late.

Mourinho Finally Says Something Positive

Jose Mourinho’s sound-bites this season have had a singular aim: lowering everyone’s expectations. He’s repeatedly spoken about how he doesn’t expect Chelsea to win the Premier League titles, how Chelsea are the ‘little horse’ in the title chase, and just how awful his strikers are. But amidst all this self-pity, Mourinho has suddenly come out with a few positive words:

“If you ask me if we are going to win tomorrow, I say yes. I think we are going to win. In the end of the two legs I think we are going to score more goals than them.” – Jose Mourinho

Of course he didn’t stop there. Among other tid-bits, Jose had this to aboutAi??PSG coach Laurent Blanc’s assertion that his team will attack Chelsea from the onset:

“They can say they come to attack, but maybe they don’t cross the midfield line. Maybe they say they come to defend and they find spaces and they score goals, you don’t know.Ai??The only thing that I know is that if we don’t score a minimum of two goals we have no chance.” – Jose Mourinho

Ai??Are we getting the old, cocky Mourinho back? Or is this just a blip, to be followed by more talks of being underdogs. Only time, and Jose Mourinho, will tell.

UCL Five Things: Eto’o & Ronaldo’s Battle For Fitness, Cavani & Lewandowski In Limelight

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