MADRID — Real Madrid will carry its momentum from Saturday’s ‘Clasico’ victory over rival Barcelona into its Champions League quarterfinal first leg at struggling VfL Wolfsburg Wednesday, coach Zinedine Zidane said.
Real scored its first league win at the Nou Camp since 2012, inflicting the first home defeat for Barcelona since February 2015.
“It is very important to have got the win here for our confidence and for the remainder of the season and with it coming right before our Champions League game in Germany,” said Zidane. “We know just how important the Champions League is and we want to advance, so winning here in Barcelona was very important.”
The Frenchman took over from Rafael Benitez at the start of the year and Saturday came through his first big test with flying colors.
“I liked everything about my players’ performance. We put in a massive effort and I was pleased with everything, both defensively and attacking-wise,” said the 43-year-old, who as a player led Real to the Champions League title in 2002.
Zidane has every right to be satisfied with the form of Madrid as it aims to keep alive its unbeaten run in this year’s competition in the quarterfinals.
It has won six successive games in all competitions since losing 1-0 at home to Atletico on Feb. 27.
With Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema in goal-scoring form and Gareth Bale delivering assists, Real is an awe-inspiring prospect for mercurial Wolfsburg, struggling domestically this season. Last year’s Bundesliga runner-up and German Cup winner slumped to a 3-0 loss at Bayer Leverkusen Saturday, putting European participation next season at risk.
Wolfsburg, eighth in the Bundesliga, has also been struggling for goals in recent weeks, having scored just once in its last three league matches.
But Bast Dost, its top scorer last season, could make his comeback Wednesday after being sidelined since January with a broken foot.
In Paris, meanwhile, it is time to deliver for Paris St Germain and Manchester City as the two mega-rich teams prepare to lock horns in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal also Wednesday.
PSG, which was crowned Ligue 1 champion last month, is attempting to reach the last four for the first time since Qatar Sport Investment started investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the club in 2011.
City, which has been backed by the wealth of Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi for the last eight years, is featuring in the last eight of Europe’s biggest club competition for the first time.
France midfielder Samir Nasri believes his City side is the underdog. PSG, which knocked Chelsea out 4-2 on aggregate in the last 16, geared up for Wednesday’s game by thrashing Nice 4-1 with talisman Zlatan Ibrahimovic bagging a hat trick to take his goal tally in Ligue 1 this season to 30 goals.
City also warmed up in style with a handsome 4-0 win at Bournemouth but it has several injury concerns.
Manuel Pellegrini’s men are definitely minus captain Vincent Kompany and are likely to be without goalkeeper Joe Hart and midfielder Yaya Toure. All three players have calf problems.
The good news for City is that Nasri and Belgium midfielder Kevin De Bruyne are fit again following lengthy injury layoffs.
Ibrahimovic has been on fire in attack recently but midfielder Thiago Motta said it was more important how PSG fared as a team against City.
