The UEFA Champions League returns once again this Tuesday and Wednesday evening with the final four matches of this year’s round of 16 taking place. Last week’s results gave us the first four quarter-finalists in this season’s UCL, and the remaining four are set to be determined at the conclusion of the remaining games.
All four of these upcoming second legs are extremely close, leaving all eight sides with a good chance of making it into the last eight of the competition.
With plenty of tension and drama to come throughout these games, read on as we’ve picked out our biggest talking points ahead of this week’s fixtures:
1 – Arsenal to end poor round of 16 run?
Arsenal’s return to the Champions League this season appeared to be going wonderfully as they topped Group B with just one loss and were then drawn against Porto in the round of 16, a draw which many perceived to be favourable for the English side.
However, the Gunners have had a hard time in the Champions League round of 16 with them exiting at this stage of the competition in all of their last seven attempts. This curse followed them to Portugal in the first leg as they fell to a 1-0 defeat with a wondergoal from Galeno, meaning Arsenal have now lost their last seven first-leg matches at this stage as well.
Arsenal will be desperate to end this streak in the second leg at the Emirates, where they have only lost two games all season. Interestingly, the last time Arsenal reached the quarter-finals was by beating Porto 5-0 in 2010. Will history repeat itself?
2 – Struggling champions meet again
Napoli and Barcelona have gone through tough periods this season as they’ve both struggled to find the same level of performance that won them their respective league titles last season.
The first leg between these two sides ended 1-1 thanks to goals from world-class strikers Robert Lewandowski and Victor Osimhen, leaving the game up for grabs in the second leg at the Camp Nou.
Neither side have lost since the first-leg draw and will both be hopeful of taking the victory and progressing into the quarter-finals as they look to salvage their season with a run in the Champions League. Could Super Eagles start Osimhen be the difference maker?
3 – Atletico trail in Madrid
Arguably the match-up of the round saw Simone Inzaghi’s Inter face up against Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid.
The first leg saw Inter make the most of their home advantage as they dominated the game at the San Siro, taking 19 shots to Atletico’s measly nine. However, substitute striker Marko Arnautovic was the sole player to get on the scoresheet as Inter could only forge a 1-0 lead heading into the game in Spain.
Atletico have been phenomenal at the Civitas Metropolitano this season as Simeone’s side are still yet to lose at home in either the Champions League or La Liga. They will now be hoping to make the most of their own home advantage this time as they look to get back into the tie.
4 – Signal Iduna Park to make the difference?
Another side hoping to take advantage of playing in front of their home crowd is Borussia Dortmund.
Dortmund and PSV first leg ended in a stalemate with former PSV player Donyell Malen opening the scoring for the Germans before Luuk de Jong equalised for the Dutch side from the penalty spot.
The second leg now takes place in Germany and Dortmund will be relying on their home crowd, and in particular the fierce ‘Yellow Wall’, to help push them over the line and book their spot in this year’s UCL quarter-finals.
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1 Comment
by Chidera chimaobi
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