The top scorer in the history of the Champions League and the most prolific of this season returns to the light on Tuesday: Cristiano Ronaldo must get Juventus out of a bad situation against Porto (9 p.m.), while Erling Haaland wants to take Dortmund to quarters by beating Sevilla.
Turin, defeated 2-1 in the first leg in Portugal, approaches this round of 16 second leg of C1 in a much less favorable position than Borussia Dortmund, solid winner in Spain of Sevilla FC with a double from the Norwegian striker (3- 2). The Italian club has already managed, recently, to reverse the trend in a direct confrontation: it was in 2019, already in the round of 16, against Atlético Madrid, disgusted 3-0 after winning the first leg 2- 0. At the time, Ronaldo had made a perfect copy, with a sensational hat-trick. The man with 134 goals in C1 is therefore expected again at the top to take Juve to the quarter-finals, a stage he has not passed since his arrival in Italy in 2018. Another interesting statistic: if Ronaldo sees the quarter-finals of the C1 this season, he will be able to equal, at 36, the record for the number of Champions League matches played (177), currently held by a former teammate, goalkeeper Iker Casillas, ex-player of Real Madrid and … Porto.
Haaland aims for Mbappé record
Eight-time scorer in this edition, Erling Haaland is more serene when it comes to Dortmund’s return match against Sevilla (9:00 p.m.). Sparkling in the first leg with a double against the Andalusians, the 20-year-old Norwegian continues to panic records: he can beat Kylian Mbappé as the early scorers of the queen competition, the French having scored 19 goals in C1 before his 21st anniversary, against 18 for the Norwegian (in only 13 matches!). And just to build up a little more confidence before the European meeting, Haaland scored two goals on Saturday during the German “Klassiker”, lost 4-2 against Bayern Munich.
A match that he finished on the bench, after a blow to an ankle which should not call into question his participation in the eighth-final second leg of C1 Tuesday. “He came out because he took a blow and we have to spare him, he has played a lot in recent weeks,” explained his coach Edin Terzic. For Haaland and Dortmund, the fear of elimination nonetheless revives the memory of the round of 16 in 2020, where the Germans dominated Paris SG 2-1 before losing their foothold in France in the second leg (2-0). After a double in the first leg, the Norwegian prodigy was then silent during the second round.
Writing (with AFP)
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