New boss Ralf Rangnick has managed to take his side to the last four thanks to an impressive display over the two legs against Inter Milan, where his side scored seven goals despite registering less than 47% of possession in both games.

Despite conceding much of the possession to their opponents during their impressive Champions League run, Schalke 04 have lost only once in the tournament this season and that was on day one against Lyon.

They have since shown their resilience against the bigger clubs in the competition and their strength is on the counter attack, having racked up 21 goals in the ten games played so far.

The experience of former Real Madrid player Raul has been a major factor in the Champions League this term and along with Ryan Giggs on the opposing team, could be a key player over the two legs of the semi final.

Castrol performance data shows that Giggs has provided the assist on all four of United’s goals most recent goals in the Champions League and the veteran 37 year old has once again been in outstanding form for his club this season.

Occupying a free role on the pitch, the Welsh veteran has been instrumental in Manchester United’s Champions League quarter final tie against Chelsea, assisting all three of his side’s goals, the left-footed wizard had also assisted United’s last goal against Marseille in the last 16 stage.

The key factor for United is not to underestimate the German team, who despite having a miserable season in the Bundesliga where they are currently in tenth place, have achieved the unimaginable in disposing of some of the top clubs in Europe so far in the Champions League.

Things have moved on since and the talents of Gareth Bale and Jack Wilshere have come to amazing fruition with both players collecting PFA Awards last weekend.

Tottenham’s Welsh wing wizard Gareth Bale was recognised for his outstanding contribution to the club, being awarded the Player of the Year Award while Jack Wilshere picked up the Young Player of the Year Award for his excellent form at Arsenal.

Both players are likely to figure in tomorrow evenings game and Castrol Edge performance data compares the two playmakers and the effect that they have had on the Premier League so far this season.

In the Premier League this season, Bale has been a force to be reckoned with on the left flank, firing in seven goals and assisting one more. However, the Gunners midfielder Wilshere has assisted two more goals (3) and provided three more goalscoring chances (45) than the Welshman.

Wilshere has a superior passing accuracy; both overall (86% v 73%) and in the final third of the pitch (78% v 65%) and has also been more involved in matches than Bale on average, touching the ball 72 times a game compared to Bale’s average involvement of 62 touches a match.

Somewhat expectedly, Bale is much more of a threat in and around the box than the English midfielder though; attempting 23 more shots and having a superior shooting accuracy and conversion rate. More surprising is the fact that Bale has a better tackle success rate than Wilshere – 77% to the Englishman’s 74%.

And here are the stats:

Bale v Wilshere – 2010/11 Premier League

Castrol Edge performance data shows that Michael Carrick was a key member of the United team in the first leg, the midfielder made seven interceptions on the night, three more than any other player on the pitch.

The England international was also impeccable in his delivery, completing 36 of his 41 passes, an 88% success ratio that no other United midfielder could match at the Bridge.

Ryan Giggs was the highest beneficiary of his passes (seven), a fact that reaped rewards with Carrick’s long diagonal ball to the Welsh wizard being the catalyst for the only goal of the game.

On a near perfect night, he also won all seven of his duels, including the two dribbles he embarked on. Physical but fair, he was the only United outfield player who didn’t concede a foul.

The question that Chelsea fans will be asking is where are the goals going to come from for the Blues if they are to beat United and progress in the competition.

There appears to be a general frustration with the contribution of Fernando Torres since his move from Liverpool, he has taken time to adjust to the Chelsea style, but he has not been helped so far by Carlo Ancelotti who has only just got his head around how best to utilise Drogba and Anelka in the team.

However, Castrol EDGE Performance data shows that no player has had more shots on target than Fernando Torres in the Champions League knockout stages this season.

The Chelsea striker has tested the ‘keeper eight times, a tally only Lionel Messi can match, although the Barcelona wizard has scored from two of those chances.  Surely it is just a matter of time before Torres breaks his duck for the Blues in Europe and Old Trafford could be the perfect arena for that.

At the moment though, he is the player who has had the most attempts without scoring in the knockout stages of this season’s competition, ahead of teammate Didier Drogba and Tottenham midfielder Rafael van der Vaart.

A goal fest for Torres or another clean sheet for Carrick?

In fact the Chelsea strike force has been nowhere near as potent as you would expect from a world class trio of strikers, Drogba, Anelka and Torres and the blues will be looking for a change of fortune tonight, if they are to progress.

According to Castrol EDGE Performance Analysis, Chelsea’s strikers haven’t clicked since the arrival of Fernando Torres.

Nicolas Anelka scored two goals in the Champions League against FC Copenhagen, but Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres haven’t managed a goal between them.

In the Champions League, it has not been for the want of trying as the three strikers have mustered 13 shots on target in the two matches against their Danish opponents.

But in domestic competition, it has been a different story with the three forwards managing just two shots on target between them in over 16 hours combined.

The struggle to find an effective combination is also demonstrated by the fact that they have only two assists in that time, both for Drogba, prior to last weekend’s games.

While Manchester United have experienced few problems in front of goal in the Premier League, Rooney and Berbatov have been scoring for fun, in the Champions League they have not been at their sharpest.

Castrol EDGE Performance data shows that Manchester United have struggled in attack in the Champions League this season and they will need to improve their goalscoring record when they go up against rivals Chelsea in the Champions League quarter finals tonight if they fancy their chances of taking an advantage back to Old Trafford in the second leg.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s side scored on average one goal for every nine shots in the Champions League compared to one in for every 5.6 in domestic games, and as a result have scored nearly twice as many goals per game.

Chelsea have won all three Premier League meetings with Manchester United since Carlo Ancelotti arrived at Stamford Bridge, with United scoring just two goals in the three games.

So if you are looking for goals it looks like the best bet maybe in the other game between favourites Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk.

Arriving at Anfield following their controversial defeat at Chelsea on Tuesday, United will be anxious to put their title run in back on track, but will have to do so without the sound defending of Nemanja Vidic, possibly the most outstanding central defender this season, who will miss the game following his red card offence at Stamford Bridge.

With Liverpool likely to include fit again January transfer signing Andy Carroll as a strike partner for Luis Suarez, the omens are not good for United keeping a clean sheet.

In his 202 minutes of Premier League football so far, Suarez has proved what an astute buy Liverpool have made. He has managed a shot on goal with every 17 minutes of play according to Castrol Performance data, the highest ratio in the Premier league.

Although he has had twelve shots so far in his short Liverpool career, he has scored only once and made one other. He has none the less shown what a handful he is to mark, he has quick feet and is strong in the tackle, winning well over half the balls that he has contested.

Suerez’s partnership with Carroll could become one of the best strike partnerships in football, the imposing physical presence of the latter has led to five headed goals so far this season, and his headed flick on’s will provide Suarez with plenty of chances to score himself.

Man United will feel that they too have plenty of firepower in front of goal, Wayne Rooney appears close to his best again and Berbatov and Nani are in a particularly rich vien of goal scoring form.

Should Ryan Giggs be involved in the game he will overtake Sir Bobby Charlton as the player to make most appearances for the club, having equalled the former players 606 games at Chelsea this week.

It was twenty years ago this week when the young Welsh wizard was introduced to the United team, coming on for Dennis Irwin against Everton in March 1991.

Giggs has currently played 566 Premier League games and is only six appearances behind record holder David James who has made 572, another record the United player will surely eclipse by the end of this season.

The loss at Stamford Bridge has injected some new interest in the Premiership title challenge, not exactly reviving Chelsea hopes of holding onto their title, but certainly raising a glimmer of hope for Arsenal and Manchester City.

A loss at Liverpool would be unthinkable for United but would make things a whole lot more interesting during the final games of the season.

Liverpool meanwhile were skittled by strugglers West Ham this week and will be anxious to return to the winning ways they have rediscovered since Dalglish took over from Roy Hodgson.

My Verdict: Liverpool 2 Man Utd 1

Arsenal will have been lifted by this result, particularly as they are playing consistently well and present the only real challenge to Manchester United in the Premier league.

Arsene Wenger claims that the Gunners have closed the gap on their rivals since being punished in the quarter final of the Champions League last season when Messi scored four goals in their 4-1 romp at the Nou Camp and Arsenal escaped with a draw at the Emirates.

Despite playing the most attractive football in the Premier League, I really can’t see that the North Londoners are equal to Barcelona, but they are closing the gap due to Wenger being in a position to field his best players on a more regular basis this year.

None more so than Robin Van Persie who has scored more goals in the Premiership in 2011 than any other, with ten goals so far in less than two months. But the Dutchman has only featured in one Champions League game for Arsenal, and although he scored on that occasion all eyes will be on the Barcelona goal machine Lionel Messi, who has scored 13 times in his last eleven CL games.

In midfield it will be interesting to compare Xavi and Fabregas, perhaps the Barcelona players future replacement. Despite Cesc providing a joint Premier League high of nine assists this season, four more than Xavi, it is the Barcelona player who comes out on top in tackling and accuracy of passing.

In the Champions League however, Xavi has managed just the one goal assist so far (and no goals), although he has hit a competition-high 366 accurate passes in the opposition half. Arsenal captain Fabregas, on the other hand, has already bagged three goals and provided two goal assists.

While the likes of Messi and Fabregas will no doubt provide some of the highlights of the game on Wednesday, the outcome of the game may well depend on the performances of both sides’ defences.

Laurent Koscielny has endured a mixed start to his career with Arsenal, but in recent weeks, his partnership with Johan Djourou has become vital to Arsenal’s title tilt. Indeed, with those two in position in central defence in the Gunners’ last seven league games, Arsenal have kept five clean sheets. Koscielny has also impressed in attack, netting two goals so far.

His Spanish counterpart, Puyol, has already netted one goal, while his distribution, like that of all the Barca players, is superb, with 91% of his passes finding a team-mate in La Liga.

Castrol Performance data shows that Arsenal will know what to expect after their quarter-final clash with Barcelona last season.

Over the two legs, Barcelona asserted their total domination of the ball, completing 654 passes more than the Gunners. Pep Guardiola’s were too much to handle over the two legs, unleashing 37 shots, that’s one every five minutes. Nearly half of those attempts found the target (18). Lionel Messi alone had nearly twice as many shots on target as the Gunners, testing Manuel Almunia nine times, four of which found the back of the net.

Arsene Wenger will be warned to wrestle the initiative away from Barcelona early on. Last season, Arsenal were battered in the first-half of their first leg at the Emirates. As shown by the average position graphic below, all of Barca’s outfield players – barring their centre-halves – spent the majority of their time in the Gunners half of the pitch.

Given Barcelona’s dominance in La Liga again this season I would expect a repeat of last seasons quarter final score at the Emirates and am going for a 2-2 draw.

castrol performance research

Harry Redknapp’s team have scored four goals from counter attacks this season, at least twice as many as 30 of the other 31 teams who have played in the Champions League this season, and their total of eight shots from counter attacks is also a competition high.

It was how Tottenham disposed of Milan’s city rivals Inter in the group game at White Hart Lane, scoring twice from counter attacks and utilising the pace of Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon. The Spurs central midfield of Modric (14) and Huddlestone (6) sat deep and then released the front four to devastating effect. Similar tactics at the San Siro could bring further success.

Surprisingly it is Aaron Lennon who leads the Champions League table for assists this season with four and Spurs will be further comforted by the fact that Peter Crouch has also had a hand in setting up three more for the North Londoners.

AC Milan would appear to be least comfortable when defending shots from distance, no team has allowed more shots from long range to hit the target than Milan, with the final group stage game against Ajax a case in point. Both of the Dutch side’s goals came from outside the area, along with seven other shots on target.

While Spurs were joint top scorers in the group stage, only one of their eighteen goals was scored from outside the box. Given the striking capabilities from midfield it would not be a surprise if Redknapp orders his players to shoot on sight of goal, regardless of distance.

When it comes to discipline it would appear that no team can match the ill tempered defence of AC Milan. They have conceded 98 fouls a figure only matched by Shaktar Donetsk and have recieved a table topping 17 yellow cards so far in the competition.

That equates to 13 separate AC Milan players picking up bookings during the group stage, however they have yet to have a player sent off in the Champions League.

AC Milan are currently at the top of Serie A and I fancy them to edge an open but low scoring game at San Siro with a score of 2-1.

castrol performance research

The Arsenal midfielder Sami Nasri has been in outstanding form for both club and country this season, he appears to be in the form of his life and is looking fitter than ever, he is the leading midfield candidate according to the Castrol data.

Gareth Bale is in with a shout, his performance at the San Siro against Inter Milan single handedly put Spurs back in a game that ten minutes previously looked well beyond them.

Bale does get himself into some fantastic positions but his shooting accuracy isn’t as good as Nasri, the Welsh international also misses out to the Frenchman on passing accuracy and dribble success rates.

When it comes to goal scoring, it is again Nasri who has scored the most Premier League goals this season with nine compared to Bale’s seven and outsider Charlie Adam of Blackpool weighing in with three.

Adam’s may not match the other two in front of goal but the Castrol data shows that he is more involved in the game than either Bale or Nasri, with more touches of the ball and total passes than either player.

The Blackpool player has assisted in four goals for his team this season while Nasri and Bale have surprisingly been involved in only one a piece.

The front runners for the Player of the Year awards in attack, have to be Manchester United’s Dimitar Berbatov and Manchester City’s Carlos Tevez, both players have scored fourteen Premier League goals and are joint leading scorers in that league.

Dimitar Berbatov has hit the target with a higher percentage of his shots and converted a higher percentage of chances than Carlos Tevez, but a five goal haul against Blackburn and a hat-trick versus Liverpool mean that eight of the Bulgarian’s tally came in just two matches. Berbatov’s impressive displays have seen him rise to 7^th in the current Castrol Rankings which measure performance over the whole of 2010.

Tevez has probably caused some regret at Old Trafford that they let him go as since his move across the city, no player has scored more goals in the Premier League. Tevez has also set up five goals compared to Berbatov’s two assists and has better statistics in all round play than Berbatov this season. The Argentinean is currently 14^th in the Castrol Rankings.

Tevez appears the more industrious of the two, but it is fair to say that Berbatov is far more involved than he has been in the past at United, he is covering more ground and creating more chances for himself than he has for a long time.

Of the three top candidates, Nasri, Berbatov and Tevez, I would prefer to have the Arsenal player in my team in his current form he looks unstoppable.

The candidates are based on Castrol Performance data and not personal sentiment although I would be hard pushed to make an argument against any of them.

Chelsea may have their work cut out in tonight’s game against Spartak Moscow, although the Premier league champions won the away tie 2-0 the Russian’s always looked dangerous against an uncharacteristically slovenly performance from the Blues.

Former Celtic player Aiden McGeady is in the form of his life in Russia and caused all sorts of problems for the Chelsea defence at home, posing a constant threat whipping in eight crosses and setting up four chances during the match.

Spartak failed to convert any of the nine shots on target two weeks ago while Chelsea put away two of their three chances created.

Ironically John Terry was the only Chelsea player to make the top five of most successful passers during the last game with 90% accuracy in 31 passes compared to McGeady’s 95% from 40 passes.

Nicolas Anelka was the man in form for Chelsea on that occasion scoring the second gaol, his fourth so far in the campaign and remains the most dangerous of  Chelsea’s strikers going into tonight’s game.

Prediction:  Chelsea 2 Spartak 1

AC Milan v Real Madrid

A lot will depend on whether Gennaro Gattuso gets a game for Milan, or indeed how long he gets if he is picked, as he has proven to be the midfielder most likely to break up attacking play from the opposition in the brief 149 minutes that he has played in the Champions League this season.

He only managed 59 minutes in the reverse fixture at the Bernabeu before making way for a more attacking formation as Milan sought to get back into the game.

With Real Madrid possessing probably the most dangerous front players in the competition, AC Milan will be looking toward Gattuso to enforce the midfield.

Cristiano Ronaldo has edged his way back to sparkling form for Madrid in his last few matches in La Liga and the Champions League, following a particularly slow start to the season, scoring eleven goals and three assists in the last five games in both competitions!

What more needs to be said as we all know what the Portuguese player is capable of, and bearing in mind the further potency of the Real Madrid attack.

Prediction: AC Milan 0 Real Madrid 2

But Spurs fans will be happy to see their summer signing Rafael Van der Vaart gatecrashing the Top 100 following his early season prowess for the North Londoners, a move which will probably surprise his former employers at Real Madrid.

Van der Vaart moves up from 503rd to 83rd on the back of his superb start to the season at White Hart Lane and not just for his goal scoring heroics, he also has a 91% success rate with his defensive tackles, winning ten out of eleven attempts so far in Premier and Champions League football.

The Premier League provides no less than eight of the top performers at this stage with Didier Drogba the highest ranking in fourth place. La Liga and the Bundesliga provide five apiece, Arjen Robben continuing his superb form at Bayern Munich to claim the third place in the player rankings.

CASTROL RANKINGS – TOP 20