Messi, Ramos, Ronaldo and Salah.. Football drama in the Champions League
The draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League resulted in a number of fiery confrontations, such as Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Atletico Madrid.
Manchester City faces Sporting Lisbon, Bayern Munich meets Austrian Red Bull Salzburg, European champions Chelsea meet Lille, and Juventus is trying to save its season during the two matches against Villarreal.
In an Italian-English summit, Liverpool faces Inter Milan, while the last meeting in the round of 16 brings together Ajax and Benfica.
In turn, a number of players are facing strong challenges during this role, as part of the “football drama” that the fans of the game always prefer, especially if it comes to the names of stars such as Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Mohamed Salah.
Ramos
The start with Spanish defender Sergio Ramos, who is facing his former club Real Madrid, after nearly 16 years with the Royal Club, during which he won many titles, on top of which is the title of “European Champions” 4 times.
The 35-year-old will enter the Santiago Bernabeu in the Paris club shirt, and he does not know the reaction of the royal fans, as he will try to defend his team’s goal against his former comrades, and he may score an impressive goal against the Madrid club, ending his journey towards regaining the European title.
Yesterday’s friend and today’s competitor spoke about Real Madrid’s confrontation with the newspaper “AS”, saying: “I was hoping to face another team other than Real Madrid, everyone knows how much I love the club and the fans, and that will never change.”
He added: “It is time to face the present, I am a player in Paris Saint-Germain and I will defend my team, I will do what I can to overcome that role.”
Ramos’ logical statements increase the public’s preparedness to follow up on this fiery confrontation, with a special follow-up to the performance of the Spanish defender against the team he had led for months.
Messi
In order to win the “European Champions”, Paris Saint-Germain began building a “dream team” through a number of distinguished contracts, especially with one of the best football players in the world, Lionel Messi.
So far, Messi has not appeared at his usual level with the French club, amid “flea” attempts to restore his copy with Barcelona again, which was sufficient to preserve the chances of the Catalan club in local and continental competition in recent years.
With the departure of the Argentine, Barcelona left the “European Champions” early from the group stage, for the first time in nearly 17 years.
Messi faces a club he knows well, Real Madrid, who always shines in front of him, as he played 45 meetings against the royal, during which he contributed 40 goals, and is the historical top scorer for the Clasico of the land with 26 goals.
The fans of the Paris club are waiting for Messi to shine again against Real Madrid, and to contribute to the Paris team’s overcoming of this difficult challenge, especially since the Royal offers distinguished technical levels with Italian Carlo Ancelotti this season.
During the 15 meetings Messi played in the Saint-Germain shirt, Al-Barghouth contributed 11 goals, but it is not about the language of numbers, but rather the influence of the Argentine star in general, and his ability to turn the scales in favor of his team at any moment.
Mbappe
Frenchman Kilian Mbappe’s move to Real Madrid has become a matter of time, after the Paris star’s statements about his desire to move to the Spanish team, noting that renewal negotiations with Saint-Germain reached a “dead end”.
At the beginning of the season, the fans of Saint-Germain attacked Mbappe with whistles, and it may be repeated if the Frenchman does not perform at his best against his future club.
Mbappe needs to be on his best days when he faces Real Madrid, otherwise the fans may consider him a “traitor” to his team and try to help the Royal Club remain in the “Champions of Europe”.
It is noteworthy that Mbappe had moved to the Parisian team in 2017, coming from French Monaco, and since then he has participated with the team in 194 matches in all competitions, during which he scored 145 goals and made 75 goals for his colleagues.
Ronaldo
Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in the Champions League with 140 goals and 48 assists.
The 36-year-old is considered the most influential player in the Champions League in recent years, and he aspires to save the Manchester United season, and lead it as far as possible in the most important European club championship.
The holder of the 5 Champions League titles faces Atletico Madrid, who met him in 35 matches, during which he scored 25 goals and assisted 9.
The opponent’s coach, Diego Simeone, faces one of his nightmares, when he meets a Madeira missile, and will try to stop it in all possible ways, especially after Ronaldo’s last hat-trick against the Spanish club with Juventus in 2019, and it was enough to bid Simeone’s battalion farewell from the final price round.
Salah
The Egyptian star, Mohamed Salah, is presenting one of his best seasons with Liverpool, after he contributed 30 goals in 22 games he played in the “Reds” shirt so far.
In conjunction with Liverpool’s negotiations with Salah to renew his contract with the team, the Egyptian star made it clear that he wanted to continue with the English club, and to repeat the achievement of achieving the English Premier League and “European Champions”.
On more than one occasion, Salah stressed that achieving titles with his team is “more important than winning individual titles.”
Salah is considered a “superman” for Liverpool, as he has led the team since joining his ranks to win the English Premier League title, which has been absent from his coffers for more than 30 years.
He led the “Reds” to compete for the title of “European Champions” again, reaching the final of the European Championship in 2018, after an absence of 11 years, to succeed one year later in leading the “Reds” to achieve the European title after an absence of more than 13 years.
Liverpool faces a stubborn opponent, Inter Milan, but German Jurgen Klopp hopes that his battalion will continue to shine in the European competition this year, after achieving the full mark in the group stage.
Salah may write a new distinguished chapter in his career with Liverpool, if he succeeds in leading the team to win the Champions League for the seventh time in its history.
