Ahmed Genina (On Twitter: @AhmedGenina)
1. Monaco
Obviously Monaco are the piece of cake everybody wants in the semis. Not because they are a smaller team, but because they are not a small team at all and reaching the UCL semi final is the ultimate proof of it.
However, I guess their players have a weird new feeling now that they have reached the UCL semifinal for maybe the first time in their lives. Also, their squad as someone mentioned above is relatively unexperienced, and despite their powerful attacking line, it still remains untested.
Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City defenses are (with all due respect to both teams) not on the same level as teams like Atletico Madrid and Juventus.
Furthermore, as much as their attack is strong, their defense is leaky. So even if our defense would be out of form there is a very good Chance we will be able to recover.
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2. Atletico
Atleti is, despite everything, not nearly as impenetrable team we faced in the 2014 UCL final. Also, after beating them in 3 consecutive UCL’s (2014 and 2016 final, 2015 QF), I guess we have that psychological edge over them.
What happened this year in La Liga between the two teams also is a good sign that Zizou has probably found the correct formula for beating Atletico Madrid.
3. Juventus
As for Juve, they are my least favorite opponent for a few reasons: 1.) They have (probably) the strongest defense amongst the four finalists, and across all of Europe. They also are very lethal attacking.
Stopping Dybala and Higuain will be a very tough task, especially if neither Varane nor Pepe are available. I think there is no greater revenge from Juventus for eliminating us from the 2015 UCL semifinal, than to outplay them in the final.
The grandest stage of them all.
In fact, if we look at all our opponents starting from the second Galactico era, no team has eliminated us from the UCL and has gotten away with it. The only teams that haven’t lost to Real Madrid yet in the Champions League are Barcelona (their day will come eventually) and Juventus (how nice it would be to see Ramos or Ronaldo turning tables on Juve in the final minutes).