Next Wednesday, 18th of February 2015, the current European and World champions, Real Madrid, will travel to Gelsenkirchen to measure forces with Schalke 04 for the first leg of the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League.

Los Blancos are currently not going through a particularly impressive moment at La Liga but they will try to make amends on such an important competition as the Champions League, by trying to replicate their last historical result at Veltins-Arena, when they hammered the German team by 6-1. As for Schlake, they have been very inconsistent so far this season, but by playing at home, they will certainly try to cause Real a major upset.

Real Madrid’s recent performances have been far from impressive and their heavy 4-0 defeat at Vicente Calderón against their neighbours and rivals of Atlético has certainly been a huge blow to the team’s confidence levels. One week after that match, Los Blancos had overcome Deportivo La Coruña at home, but their overall performance was still far from brilliant.

With Barcelona upon their heels at La Liga’s table, Real cannot allow any more slip-ups and they will certainly take this Champions League fixture to inject a boost of motivation in the team.

During the group stage phase, Real Madrid gave us with an excellent display of power by winning all the six matches they took part in. Their opposition, Liverpool, FC Basel and Ludogorets, have failed to pose any major threat to the dominance of the Spanish side, but it is fair to say that Swiss side did force Los Blancos to put in some extra work when they met at Basel last November.

For the upcoming fixture at Germany, Real’s manager, Carlo Ancelotti, will most certainly not be able to rely on the contribution of James Rodriguez, Luka Modric, Fábio Coentrão, Khedira and Sergio Ramos, all currently sidelined due to injury.

As for Schalke, the German side has started the new year in great form at Bundesliga, but their last weekend’s defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt could have left some open wounds at Roberto Di Matteo’s team.

An away draw against the all-powerful Bayern Munich and a home win over Borussia Monchengladbach were an excellent opening theme for this new year, but they seem to have failed to get rid of their usual inconsistency as they’ve stumble again at Frankfurt last weekend.

The Champions League is a completely different reality and, for that particularly difficult match against Real Madrid, Roberto Di Matteo will most certainly not be able to rely on the contribution of Draxler, Farfán, Kolasinac, Obasi and Fährmann, all still recovering from their respective injuries.

Despite their recent less impressive form, Real Madrid are firm favourites to win the upcoming fixture at Veltins-Arena.

Schalke 04

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LWDWL

Real Madrid

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WLWWW

Possible Line-ups

Schalke 04 (3-1-4-2) - Wellenreuther - Matip - Höwedes - Nastasic - Kirchhoff - Uchida - Barnetta - Höger - Füchs - Choupo-Moting - Huntelaar

Real Madrid (4-4-2) - Casillas - Carvajal - Varane - Pepe - Marcelo - Illarramendi - Kroos - Ronaldo - Isco - Bale - Benzema

Prediction

Schalke 04 1 Real Madrid 2