Ranking the 2015/16 Champions League Round of 16 Games in Order of Excitement
We’ll have to wait until mid-February to see them, but now we know just which teams will be contesting the matches in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League, it’s acceptable to get excited, right?
All across the continent, there’ll be sides meeting with aims of going through to the quarter-finals and, for many, genuine hopes of winning the competition, but which will be the matches to mark your diary for come the new year?
Here’s a rundown of them all.
8. Roma vs. Real Madrid
1 of 8
Yes, these are two of the regal names of European football, but there just looks to be nothing too exciting about this clash between the team that qualified for the last 16 with the lowest points ever and the 10-time champions.
Real Madrid should—on European form at least—breeze past a Roma side who’ll still be working out just how they made it through to this stage after conceding 16 goals in their six group-stage matches. Given that European progress is vital to manager Rafael Benitez’s hopes of at least making it to the end of the season in the Bernabeu hot seat, it might not be too pretty.
Roma conceded six goals at Barcelona, four at Leverkusen and three at BATE Borisov, so the first priority will be to tighten up at the back against Cristiano Ronaldo and Co., but you just know that even if they manage to do that in the home leg, they’ll exit the competition in the return game.
Real will make it through with a minimum of fuss, making this the least anticipated of the last-16 clashes in terms of the spectacle we’ll witness.
7. Dynamo Kiev vs. Manchester City
2 of 8
Manchester City fans won’t care that this tie features low down the list, simply because their club have a great chance of going through.
Indeed, Dynamo Kiev represent the first opponents that City will face in a Champions League knockout match who aren’t Barcelona, with the Ukrainians obviously nowhere near as formidable an opponent as the Catalan outfit who beat City in all four matches across two last-16 ties in the seasons before this one.
Throw in the fact that the first leg of this match will be played in front of an empty stadium in Kiev following the racist behaviour of home fans during a group-stage match against Chelsea earlier this year, and you don’t exactly have the greatest setting for what should be a City victory.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side might be as inconsistent as everyone else during what has been a strange Premier League season, but this kind Champions League draw will have them dreaming of glory in the competition.
The quarter-finals should now be reached at least, and if they can get a kind draw again there, then City could be set for real breakthrough in a competition they have yet to make a sustained impact in.
6. PSV Eindhoven vs. Atletico Madrid
3 of 8
PSV Eindhoven progressed from a Group B that really boiled down to making the most of your home games, and home advantage will again be important as the Eredivisie side welcome Atletico Madrid to the Philips Stadion for the first leg of this one.
The first Dutch club to make it through to the knockout stages since the PSV vintage of 2006/07 reached the quarter-finals, Phillip Cocu’s men will simply have to take a lead to the Spanish capital if they are to stand any chance of following suit this time around.
More likely, however, will be Atletico Madrid grinding out a win or a draw before finishing the job back at the Vicente Calderon, where Diego Simeone will be eyeing a repeat of 2013/14’s final appearance following what looks to be a fairly kind draw.
Simeone’s Atletico have proved themselves one of the very best outfits in Europe at doggedly getting results under their similarly dogged coach. It might be that the football on show here isn’t the greatest, but if it results in the Spanish side going through, then they are unlikely to care.
5. Gent vs. Wolfsburg
4 of 8
You might have expected to see this clash come in last on this list between perhaps the two clubs with the lowest profile left in the competition, but there is something so refreshing about it that it deserves to be a lot higher.
Both are here for the first time in their history, both have defied expectations, and both will be determined to put on a good show.
And Gent will know that to put on that show they’ll have to preserve their hugely impressive home form that saw them emerge unscathed from clashes with Lyon, Valencia and Zenit St Petersburg this season—winning the latter two matches in order to qualify.
Wolfsburg—fresh from effectively knocking out Manchester United with that stunning 3-2 win on Matchday 6—had better not take the Belgians lightly. On the other hand, though, they will surely never have a better chance of finding themselves among the final eight clubs in the competition.
Whatever happens, there promises to be a compelling story—and one that probably deserves a greater audience than these ties will get.
Give it a watch: It might surprise you.
4. Benfica vs. Zenit St Petersburg
5 of 8
It has been clear from the outset of their campaign and the 3-2 win at Valencia that Andre Villas-Boas has been determined to do something with Zenit St Petersburg in the Champions League this season, his last campaign with the club.
That “something” won’t include crashing out of the competition in his home country, then, and Zenit—who won their first five matches of the group stages before losing at Gent when they’d already qualified for the last 16—will see this as a perfect chance to make it through.
Granted, Benfica managed a win at Atletico Madrid in their first away game of the group stages this season, but on the flip side, they also failed to win at both Galatasaray and Astana, fostering an idea of unpredictability about one of the ties that should be among the more open.
That said, Zenit really should get the job done in the second leg back in Russia, where stars of this year’s Champions League such as Hulk and Artem Dzyuba could tip the tie for the home side.
3. Juventus vs. Bayern Munich
6 of 8
The pervading belief seems to be that Pep Guardiola is going to leave Bayern Munich in the summer for pastures new, and for his time in Germany to really be considered a success, then the widespread viewpoint is that he probably needs to win the Champions League.
Anything else won’t match up to his extremely high standards ahead of a new chapter in his coaching career, and the fact that Juventus have finally got going following a below-par start to the season adds even more spice to this meeting between the Italian and German champions.
Although not the side they were when they reached the Champions League final last season, Juve still have proven match-winners in their squad, and Bayern’s visit to Turin is sure to be a must-watch occasion as Guardiola gears up his side for what will be a difficult first leg.
His team aren’t averse to the odd slip-up on the road, and a loss here would place huge emphasis on the second clash in Munich, where Guardiola dare not fail.
2. Paris Saint-Germain vs. Chelsea
7 of 8
When Paris Saint-Germain beat Chelsea in the last 16 of the Champions League last season, it was quite rightly viewed as a huge shock—one team was running away with the Premier League title and the other was still underachieving in European competition. Things have taken a dramatic turn since.
PSG are still unproven at the very highest level, but they qualified in a business-like manner from Group A behind Real Madrid, and their electric form in Ligue 1 suggests that they can really make a statement in this competition—for which they can afford to prepare for by resting players for a domestic league that already looks won.
As for Chelsea, perhaps that Champions League loss last season should have been the warning sign for what was to come.
The Blues made it through what was a fairly inviting Champions League group, but everything else about their campaign has been a complete and utter mess.
Jose Mourinho will view the Champions League as one last chance for salvation, and that’s what will make the meeting between the teams from the French and English capitals so compelling to watch.
Indeed, a defeat could mean that we see the Portuguese’s entire managerial future crumble.
1. Arsenal vs. Barcelona
8 of 8
In both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 Champions League meetings with Barcelona, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal—and certainly their fans—got a little bit too excited after coming through the first legs at the Emirates Stadium without losing.
They were, somewhat inevitably, put in their place by Barca back in Catalonia, but these last-16 clashes offer Wenger the perfect opportunity to show the watching world that he and his side have evolved since then.
Playing at the peak of their powers with the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez—formerly of Barca, you’ll remember—on form, then there will be few other sides who could take on Luis Enrique’s men with this level of confidence that they can get something.
The key will be to get another decent home result—as they did against Bayern Munich in the group stages—but to crucially not completely render that null and void by being blown away at the Camp Nou—as they did at Bayern in the group stages.
Wenger should have key players back by then, though, and if his men can go to Catalonia with a realistic chance of putting up a good fight, then the Champions League holders could be in for a tough night.
