Sports Burst - Will Juve Be Joining Crisis Club?
Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo facing early Champions League exit as Old Lady looks to overcome Old Men of Atletico Madrid
By Tim Stannard
Allegri admits Ronaldo and co need to be at 100% to avoid early Champions League exit
Here's an existential question to kick off Tuesday. Is Real Madrid in crisis anymore?
Technically speaking the Spanish team is out of all competitions and is being chased by Getafe of all teams in LaLiga. Its captain has taken to interviewing himself on Instagram and the star player is more excited by a golf tournament. But it now has Coach Zizou back in charge.
The same question might be asked later today in terms of Juventus.
Knowing Atletico Madrid's genuine love of digging in and defending, if Juve does not overturn a 2-0 deficit in a Champions League Last 16 second leg clash in Turin, then the Old Lady will be crashing out fairly early in the knockout stages rather than choking in the final, which has been the usual routine. However, another Serie A title will be won at a canter.
Nevertheless, an early Champions League exit was not part of Project Ronaldo, which was the concept of bringing in CR7 at great expense from Real Madrid to win the Champions League. "Having him with us is a great advantage," boomed Juve boss, Max Allegri ahead of today's game in a tournament where Ronaldo has so far just scored the single goal in five matches.
Head to our Sports Burst live show at 12PM ET / 9AM PT on the beIN SPORTS USA Facebook page for the big Champions League predictions.
City's 'teenagers' look to seal deal against Schalke
Tuesday's 'other' match, to use its formal moniker, see Manchester City taking on the Bundesliga strugglers of Schalke.
A topsy-turvy first leg in Germany saw City coming away with a 3-2 win, however Pep Guardiola is still playing the old 'inexperienced plucky sorts just finding our way through the competition' card.
Ahead of these four teams duking it out to make it to quarterfinals, the coaches of Barcelona Lyon and Bayern Munich and Liverpool will be speaking words on Tuesday.
Both ties are precariously balanced with no goals whatsoever having been scored in the first leg, which makes Barca very vulnerable to their French opponents, especially if Leo Messi happens to have an off day.
PSG back on football horse after Champions League letdown
Sticking with clubs in that philosophical area of crisis / no crisis and PSG is back in action on Tuesday in Ligue 1.
A victory for Lille in Ligue 1 while the league leaders sat out the weekend and had fans yell mean things at them during a training session sees the gap at the top of table closing to a nerve-shredding 14 points.
However, a chance to get back on the horse of rebirth today and a league clash at Dijon sees PSG relishing the chance to extend the cushion to a more comfortable 17 points. That game is live on beIN SPORTS at 2PM ET / 11AM PT.
Also on the agenda is the Copa Libertadores Match Day 2 with six games spread across the whole network including a double-header on beIN SPORTS with Boca Juniors hosting Colombian visitors Deportes Tolima at 6PM ET / 3PM PT followed by Gremio taking on Club Libertad.