Champions League Round of 16: Week One Preview
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It’s been a while, specifically 69 days, since we’ve been graced with Champions League football. Lucky for us, the wait is over. For four of the next five weeks, on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, football fans in North America will sneak away from work for an extended “lunch” or stream matches during class to watch the top European teams in action.
More from Champions League
- PSV Eindhoven v Rangers: Can Gers make it through to group stage?
- Manchester City win their first Champions League
- Champions League Final: Manchester City meets Internazionale in Istanbul
- Manchester City standing on the cusp of a treble
- Barcelona Femeni win their second Champions League title
Real Madrid are both the returning champions and most successful club, winning the Champions League 10 times. Anyone watching last year’s final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid would know that Los Blancos captured La Decima, referring to their tenth, groundbreaking title. Real are unsurprisingly one of the favorites to come out of this competition as victors following their perfect 6-0-0 record in group stages.
Chelsea and Bayern Munich, the EPL and Bundesliga leaders respectively, will have some say in this season’s competition as well. Both sides have looked rock solid in league play and look to carry that form into the Round of 16.
PSG and FC Porto have been impressive and are dark horses to make deep runs in the competition. FC Basel, FC Shalke 04, and Shakhtar Donetsk round out this week’s teams in action.
At Playing for 90, we will preview the matches that will be taking place during the week with overviews, players to watch, and predictions for each match. Thus, this will be the first of a 4-part Round of 16 preview.
Next: Paris Saint-Germain v. Chelsea