The Uefa Champions League quarter-final line up is decided this week, as European football’s big guns battle to make it through the first knockout round.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus and Lionel Messi’s Barcelona have already been knocked out of the competition, with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City all among those out to progress this week.
Real Madrid go into the second leg of their last 16 clash with Atalanta with a one-goal lead.
Ferland Mendy’s late strike was the only goal of the night in Italy three weeks ago, with the Serie A side having to battle hard to stay in the contest following an early red card for Remo Freuler.
English Premier League leaders Manchester City are hunting a first Champions League crown under continental king Pep Guardiola on Tuesday.
They have a 2-0 cushion from their first leg against Borussia Monchengladbach thanks to goals from Bernardo Silva and Gabriel Jesus.
The pair now return to Hungary for the second leg on neutral turf, with Covid-19 restrictions shifting the tie from the Etihad Stadium to Budapest’s Puskas Arena.
Bayern Munich are out to finish the job they started against Lazio in February, with the Bundesliga giants boasting a 4-1 lead after the first leg in Rome.
Robert Lewandowski, Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sane and a Francesco Acerbi own goal piled up a four-goal advantage early in the second half, before Joaquin Correa pulled one back at the Stadio Olimpico.
Few would bet against Hans-Dieter Flick’s side ensuring safe passage into yet another UCL quarter-final draw at the Allianz Arena.
There’s much more spice surrounding Chelsea’s last 16 second leg tussle with Atletico Madrid.
Diego Simeone’s La Liga leaders were left fuming by the decision to allow the Blues’ Stamford Bridge home to host the second half of the tie, despite Covid-19 restrictions on English teams seeing the first leg, three weeks ago, shifted all the way to Romania.
Robbed of their home advantage, the Spanish side slipped to a 1-0 defeat thanks to an overhead kick from Olivier Giroud.
Now they head to the English capital with revenge on their minds.
Uefa Champions League predictions for 16-17 March
Prediction methodology explained: The expected win percentage is based off publicly available odds. For example, if a team’s odds are 2.30, the expected chance of winning is 43%. If the odds are 1.62 the expected chance of winning is 62% and so on. These are accurate at the time of writing but are subject to change. Where there is no value listed, the odds were not available at the time of writing.
Latest Champions League fixtures and results
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