UEFA Champions League round of 16 predictions – The Daily Collegian Online
After a long break, the Champions League is back Tuesday afternoon.
The field made up of the best soccer teams from all of Europe has been whittled down to 16 on the road to the final in Milan. Moving forward, there will be eight two-leg matchups coming to set the quarterfinals of the 32-team competition.
The two-leg format works with two teams playing a home-and-home series with whoever scores more goals over the two games moving on. If an equal number have been scored by each side, the tie breaker is who scored more away from home.
If that doesn’t do it, there’s 30 minutes of extra time and if necessary a penalty shootout after the second leg decides who moves on.
Here are our predictions.
Predictions: Andrew Rubin
The Champion: Barcelona — The Catalans are the defending champions and have gone 30 straight matches unbeaten. The front three of Messi, Suarez, and Neymar — or MSN for short — is the most feared attacking unit in the world and thus far this year shutting them down has been near impossible. It will be a difficult battle on the road to Milan that starts with Arsenal.
Final Four: Barcelona, Paris Saint Germain, Real Madrid, and winner of Juventus/Bayern Munich. The round of 16 features a dream matchup, Juventus and Bayern Munich. Last year, Juventus was beaten by Barcelona in the final and Bayern Munich was ousted by the Catalans in the semifinal. Whoever comes out of this epic early-round tie on top should be able to make it to the semifinals. Real Madrid has a difficult but manageable matchup with Roma that should see them advance to the quarterfinal. PSG gets to play a Chelsea team that appears to finally be coming into form but is still nowhere near as good as the Chelsea team that PSG was able to knock out of the Champions League a year ago.
Matchups to watch: Bayern Munich vs Juventus: Two contenders for the trophy meeting in the opening round of the knockout stage is a nightmare for the clubs as one will have to go home early. However, the emerging side should have the confidence to ride the momentum all the way to Milan or at least the semifinals.
Arsenal vs Barcelona: On paper Arsenal is in trouble, deep trouble. However, coming off of their biggest league win of the season last weekend the Gunners are going to be on a high going into the first leg and should give Barcelona a difficult time making it through to the quarterfinal. I still think that the attacking talent of Barcelona will be too much for them to handle, but Arsenal won’t go away easily and expect a fight that isn’t decided until late in the second leg.
Chelsea vs Paris Saint Germain: Chelsea won two years ago, PSG did last year. Chelsea is floundering in the bottom half of the Premier League this season and has looked nothing like the team that won the league last year. PSG has been dominant in the French league and should be able to advance past a Chelsea team that appears to be rounding into form but has now lost captain John Terry to injury.
Bold prediction: Chelsea or Arsenal pulls the upset and advance to the quarterfinals.
Predictions: Vince Lungaro
The Champion: Barcelona- No one is going to stop Barcelona, not even my beloved Arsenal. Realistically, I think only the Bayern Munich/Juventus winner could trouble Messi, Suarez, Neymar and company. That front three is way too lethal to be beaten however. They’re on a mission. Barcelona will win its second consecutive Champions League crown.
Final Four: Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Atletico Madrid. See above for why Barcelona will be advancing to the last four. Paris Saint-Germain has been so close in recent years to making a serious run to the final. If not for running into the buzzsaw that is Barcelona last year they may have gone all the way. The Paris-based side will get the job done this year and become one of the last four standing. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you never count out Serie A clubs. Juventus has the perfect blend of youth and experience to make a run at challenging Barcelona. Atletico has seemingly always been in Real Madrid’s shadow. Not this year. Antoine Griezmann fires them to the final four.
Matchups to watch: Bayern Munich vs Juventus: These two teams are perhaps the biggest threat to Barcelona’s title defense. Unfortunately for them, they have to play one another.
Manchester City vs Dynamo Kiev: If Manchester City is the club who they think they are, then they have to win this game. I know Pep Guardiola will arrive in the summer, but that’s not important right now. Finally getting past the round of 16 in this competition is what’s important.
Arsenal vs Barcelona: I’ll be asking for divine intervention when it comes to this matchup. But I’m afraid not even the good lord above can rescue Arsenal from getting shredded by Barcelona. It might get ugly very quickly, but I’ll always have those highlights from when Arsenal upset the Spanish giants at The Emirates in 2011. Save us Andrei Arshavin, you’re our only hope.
Bold Prediction: Barcelona doesn’t score 10-plus goals over the two legs against Arsenal.
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