[Preview] Premier League and La Liga show off again, and the "Two Prides of Manchester United" gather in the Champions League

Sports Weekly Full Media Original

The Champions League war has reignited this week. The most important matchup is undoubtedly the top-ranked battle between Arsenal and Bayern Munich. However, this match is scheduled for the early morning of Thursday, and the highlight of the match in the early morning of Wednesday is on the other side. Tonight there will be powerful teams such as Manchester City, Juventus, Napoli and Bayer Leverkusen. The most noteworthy one is undoubtedly Chelsea's home game against Barcelona. The two teams have had some historical grievances, and the current meeting will remind people of a hot topic: At a time when the Premier League is "completely crushing" La Liga, will Barcelona become the unyielding flag to defend the country, or will the Blues achieve "comprehensive victory" for the "First League"?

Let’s first look at a piece of data: In the past 10 Champions League meetings between Premier League teams and La Liga teams, 9 of them were won by the Premier League teams. The only exception occurred in the first round of the league stage in September this year. Newcastle United lost 1-2 at home. The opponent was Barcelona, ​​which was about to visit the UK again. Since then, the Premier League team has achieved 4 consecutive victories in La Liga, including Arsenal's 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid, Manchester City's 2-0 victory over Villarreal, Liverpool's 1-0 victory over Real Madrid and Newcastle's 2-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao.

Among the six Premier League teams participating in the Champions League this season, Chelsea is the only one that has not defeated a La Liga team (Tottenham defeated Villarreal 1-0 in the first round), which makes their encounter with Barcelona even more special. Of course, they haven't won against a La Liga team this season, just because the Premier League Blues haven't met them before. In the first four rounds, their opponents were Bayern, Benfica, Ajax and Qarabach. They had a record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and the same points as Barcelona. The rankings of the two teams are actually similar, Chelsea is 12th and Barcelona is 11th.

Looking at the situation in the domestic league, based on your impression, you may think that Barcelona is stronger in La Liga than Chelsea in the Premier League, but in fact, both teams are currently ranked second in their respective league standings. It's just that Barcelona is only 1 point behind the top spot, Real Madrid, and Chelsea is only 6 points behind Arsenal because Manchester City suddenly lost again. There is still a little difference at a more specific level. If you compare the recent results of the two teams, they both have three consecutive victories in the domestic league, and it was relatively easy to win last weekend. In the last round of the Champions League at the beginning of this month, they both conceded many away goals and drew with opponents who were obviously not as famous as themselves.

In terms of the above points, it doesn’t seem like an exaggeration to say that Chelsea and Barcelona are “even the same”. According to the Opta supercomputer simulation, Chelsea's winning probability is 41.7%, while Barcelona's is 34.5%. It can be said that the Blues playing at home have a certain advantage, but it is not very big. Judging from the historical record of confrontations, Stamford Bridge is not a blessed place for Barcelona - although Barcelona won the championship in 2006, Barcelona's knockout journey started with the victory at the Blue Bridge. However, in addition to the 6 visits here in the Champions League, they have not won a victory, drawing 2 games and losing 4 times.

After the match in the 2017-18 season, the two teams have not met in an official game for more than 7 years, and each has changed a lot, especially Chelsea. At present, the Blues still lack their number one star Palmer, but the team's biggest disadvantage is actually their lack of experience in the Champions League. This was reflected in the fact that they were beaten hard by Bayern in the first round, and in the last round of heavy rotation, they were unable to defeat the Azerbaijani team. In comparison, Chelsea's "preparation" for this round of the Champions League seems to be more complete, because coach Maresca finally achieved the goal of resting the main players in the Premier League last weekend without affecting the harvest. Midfielder Caicedo did not need to play the whole game, Reece James only played half the game, and impactful young attackers such as Ganacho and Esteban were also put on the bench to stay in the Champions League.

Barcelona had an even more comfortable victory over Bilbao 4-0 last weekend, and their first show back at Camp Nou was a big hit. The Champions League is away from home. The bad news for the La Liga team is that midfielder Pedri will not be able to return in time and will remain on the injury list along with Garvey and Ter Stegen. However, Raphinha, who has been sidelined due to injury for a long time, traveled with the team and is expected to play longer than the substitute minutes last weekend. In addition, Rashford, who missed last weekend's league due to illness, has also returned to the team. For British fans, this Manchester United loan player is undoubtedly very eye-catching, and the reason why Barcelona was able to defeat Newcastle in the away game was because Rashford scored twice. Now that he and Ganaccio, former members of Manchester United's "Bomb Squad", are competing together, how can they not arouse everyone's curiosity? In addition, the direct comparison between Esteban and Yamal, the pair of supernovas, is also a very gimmicky topic.

The 5th round of the Champions League stage

Wednesday morning match

01:45 Ajax vs Benfica

01:45 Galatasaray vs St. Gilles United

04:00 Chelsea vs Barcelona

04:00 Bode Shine vs Juventus

04:00 Manchester City vs Leverkusen

04:00 Borussia Dortmund vs Villarreal

04:00 Marseille vs Newcastle United

04:00 Napoli vs Karabakh

04:00 Slavia Prague vs Athletic Bilbao