Full Champions League Round of 16 predictions: Will Real Madrid advance vs. PSG?
The most awaited part of the Champions League commences in mid-February. Only 16 teams remain in the winners and the runners-up of the respective groups. Although Real Madrid won their group comprehensively in the end, they are drawn against PSG. If that’s not the modern-day blockbuster in football, I don’t know what is!
Apart from this exciting fixture, there are a few more spicing up the competition. To start with the draw itself was controversial and had to be redone and some intense rivalries and some foreseeable goal-fests are definitely in-store.
Here are my predictions for the entire Round of 16 fixtures of this season’s Champions League.
FC Salzburg vs Bayern Munich
Let’s start off with possibly the most one-sided fixture in the draw, FC Salzburg vs Bayern Munich. The Austrian Champions finished second in Group G ahead of Sevilla and Wolfsburg just behind winners Lille and are set to face German giants Bayern Munich. Bayern has been dominant as usual and has won all six of their group stage games against Barcelona, Benfica, and Dynamo Kyiv.
The Bavarians undoubtedly belong to the best sides right now in World Football arguably in the top two or three football clubs. Salzburg, on the other hand, is an explosive team with sharpshooters like Karim Adeyemi and Noah Okafor. They are definitely a fun team to watch that is often overlooked.
But, against the Giants of the game like Bayern, I just don’t think that they can advance. For me, one ticket to the Quarterfinal is already reserved and that is FC Bayern Munich. They will win in what would be a high-scoring fixture between two attacking sides with the Austrians scoring 2 goals over 180 minutes but Bayern scoring around 5 or 6. Bayern just does not bottle these games against smaller opponents.
Team that goes through: Bayern Munich
Chelsea vs Lille
Lille is slowly regaining their form of last season finishing first in their group with 11 points. But, Chelsea is much higher in quality and I can easily foresee the defending Champions winning this and advancing to the quarterfinals. This would probably be the least intense match within the whole draw.
Chelsea is looking good this season. They are second in the Premier League behind Manchester City with a huge 10 points separating them. Lille on the other hand hasn’t been at their best in Ligue 1 and is conceding far too many goals. Given, Chelsea’s clinical nature I can actually argue for two dominant victories with the Blues scoring between 3-5 goals within the 180 minutes. Lille can get a goal or two, but that would just be a consolation.
Team that goes through: Chelsea