CL Round of 16 Preview
We finally move into the last sixteen knockout stages of the CL after the longer and more protracted league phase, which included its own knockout round. Let’s take a closer look at some of the matches!
The last sixteen draw has thrown up some interesting clashes with the best matches including a Madrid derby between Real and Atlético, a clash between the top two German teams and a titanic tussle between PSG and Liverpool.
The full list of fixtures is as follows:
Club Brugge vs Aston Villa
Dortmund vs Lille
PSV vs Arsenal
Real Madrid vs Atlético Madrid
Feyenoord vs Inter
Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen
Benfica vs Barcelona
PSG vs Liverpool
Arsenal and Aston Villa will be reasonably happy with the draw they ended up with and both will be hopefully of progressing through against PSV and Club Brugge respectively. Both teams have had a disappointing few weeks in their domestic leagues and will really be wanting to push to go as far as they can in their European adventure. Dortmund are another team who have really struggled this season, so any further progress in Europe will be a welcome distraction. Feyenoord will be well aware that they are big underdogs against Inter but they can take heart from the fact that they already knocked out Inter’s rivals AC Milan in the previous round. Bayern and Leverkusen clash again, the last meeting being a goalless tie in the league that allowed Bayern to continue on their march to regaining the league title. Benfica will know they have nothing to lose in their tie against the mighty Barcelona, it is somewhat of a free hit for them. The final match up could be a classic as PL leaders Liverpool take on PSG, with the latter still searching for their first CL trophy despite showing such dominance in France over a long period of time.
Real Madrid vs Atlético Madrid
Santiago Bernabeu, Tuesday @ 21:00
These two giants of Spanish football have now met ten times in the CL, more than any other pair of teams from one country. The fact that they are so close together in the league table will add extra spice to this clash. Real’s loss to Betis allowed Atlético to overtake them in the table. One stat that is certainly in favour of the home team is the fact that they have only lost one of their last seventeen home European knockout matches, an astonishing record. They are rightly favourites to win the first leg and, as they often do, they appear to be finding form at just the right time in this competition with Kylian Mbappe really making a statement with his hattrick against Manchester City in the last round. The 6-3 win over the Champions of England was a statement result but they did concede a home goal, meaning they have now scored and conceded in all nine of their last European home matches, which means that we should expect goals here.
Atlético have managed to draw the last three matches with Real and surely will be happy to take another draw in this first leg. They had a very good first phase of the competition, finishing in fifth place overall, scoring an impressive 20 goals in total. They are unbeaten in their last ten matches and last weekend’s narrow 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao pushed them to within one point of the top of the table. Atlético have lost their last three away knockout games in the CL, but the three times runners up managed to recover from losing 4-0 against Benfica on the first away day to go on to win the next three in a row.
The last three meetings have ended in 1-1 draws. Real and Atlético have both won three of the last ten clashes.
Feyenoord vs Inter Milan
De Kuip Stadium, Wednesday @ 18:45
Feyenoord reached the last sixteen of the CL for the first time in 50 years when they got the better of AC Milan in the knockout stages. They now face another Italian giant, Inter Milan. Robin Van Persie is now the head coach for the Rotterdam team and he managed a goalless draw against NEC at the weekend, perhaps not the best build up to this big game. They do have a strong record at home against Italian clubs, with seven wins from twelve matches and they will be hoping to continue on with that positive record as a home win is essential to take an advantage over to Italy.
Inter drew with Napoli in the top of the table clash at the weekend, a result which meant that they held on to their one point advantage at the top of Serie A. Inter have an impressive run of only three losses in their last 23 CL matches involving Dutch teams, winning fourteen of those and they are unbeaten in their last eleven matches against Dutch teams. Defence has been the key to their success this season, conceding just once in eight matches. Lautaro Martinez will be hoping to score here as he is one goal away from becoming Inter’s all time top scorer in the tournament.
Inter and Feyenoord have only met once before in European competition, back in 2002 where the Dutch team triumphed 3-2 on aggregate.
Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen
Allianz Arena, Wednesday @ 21:00
The top two German sides over recent years take each other on in this last sixteen CL tie with much at stake for both teams. Bayern are now unbeaten in their last nine matches, including a comeback win over Stuttgart at the weekend when they came from a goal down to win 3-1. The previous round was tighter than expected as they needed a last minute equaliser to avoid a home defeat at the hands of Celtic, which would have resulted in extra time. Bayern have only managed to score once against Leverkusen this season so the home fans will certainly be hoping for more in this meeting. Home comforts in the CL has meant that Bayern have scored 41 goals at the Allianz arena in their last eleven matches.
Leverkusen have had the better season so far in the European tournament, insofar as they were able to finish in the top eight and avoid the playoff round. They head into this match unbeaten in their last eight matches but they did lose their last two in the CL, against Liverpool and Atlético Madrid. In the Bundesliga though, they are on an excellent run, 29 matches without tasting defeat away from home. They warmed up for this with an impressive 4-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt at the weekend and confidence should be high heading into this match as they are unbeaten in six matches against their illustrious opponents.
Bayern are understandably favourites going into their home leg but there has been very little between the two teams with Bayern and Leverkusen both winning three of the last ten.
PSG vs Liverpool
Parc des Princes, Wednesday @ 21:00
Two of the in-form teams will take each other on in this high profile CL tie on Wednesday evening. PSG didn’t have the best of group stages and only managed to get through thanks to the last couple of results that went their way, in contrast to their opponents Liverpool who made light work of finishing at the top end of the table. PSG made light work of their fellow French opponents in the knockout round, beating Brest 10-0 on aggregate, a result which contributed to their long 22 game unbeaten run. PSG do not have the best record against English teams, with only two wins from their last eight clashes. However, overall they have been formidable at home, losing only ten of their last eighty matches at the Parc des Princes.
Liverpool are having an excellent season, apart from the blips in domestic cups. They are now almost nailed on to win the league and few would back against them getting the better of PSG and progressing further in this competition. The fact they were not involved in the FA Cup means they had a good long break, with no game at the weekend and they will hope to come into this match fresh and ready to fight for a good result. Liverpool have won 16 of their last 22 away CL matches, a very impressive record indeed and they will have no fear going into this tricky match.
Surprisingly these two have only met once previously, in the 2018 season with both teams winning the home legs, so there is very little historical data to look at.
Last Updated: 03.03.2025
