Tonights Champions League Football
The Champions league gets under way again tonight with the first set of games in the round of 16 which signals the start of the knockout phase of the competition.
The game that interests me is the clash between Schalke and Porto. This like most of the ties in this round looks to be a close call.
Schalke are currently 5th in the Bundesliga and come into this match on the back of only their 2nd home defeat of the season after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Wolfsburg. They qualified for this round by coming 2nd in a group that contained Chelsea, Rosenborg and a very disappointing Valencia and qualification was only assured after they beat Rosenborg 3-1 at home in match day 6.
In the league this season they have been hard to beat losing only 3 game from 20 played other then the previously mentioned defeat at home to Wolfsburg at the weekend they have lost they lost to Karlsruhe 2-0 at home and Cottbus 1-0 away.
Over the last 6 league games they are the leagues form team with 4 wins 1 draw and 1 defeat scoring 15 and conceding 10.
Porto their opponents tonight are no strangers to European competition and won their group which contained Liverpool, Marseille and Besiktas losing only once when Liverpool beat them 4-1 at Anfield in November.
They currently top the Portuguese league by 10 points from Benfica and though they are top of the form league over the last 6 games in that time they have suffered their first two league defeats of the season at Nacional (1-0) and Sporting Lisbon (2-0).
It is this slight dip in away form that makes me favour Schalke tonight and at best price with Pinnacle of 25/19 and generally 6/5 elsewhere I feel there is a little value to be had on going for a Schalke win.
Team news is that Schalke will welcome Jermaine Jones back into his midfield after he was suspended on Friday. Jones will take the place of Peter Lovenkrands.
Porto will be without the injured pair of Bolatti and Bosingwa for tonight's clash.
So my money is on a Schalke win tonight though I expect Porto to go through over the two legs.
As ever good luck,
Silverfox.
