With the balls being drawn on December 14 to decide the pairings for the knockout round, the final 16 clubs can now prepare for the Champions League Round of 16, a continuation of Europe’s most recognized club tournament.
The eight winners of the previous group stage round will prepare to face off with the eight second place finishers, who will get to host the first of the two-legged affair. With away goals holding all the weight in the tie, the top seeded clubs will return home for the back leg knowing what they need to do to progress to the quarterfinals.
Real Madrid took the top spot in group A, and were paired with second place AS Roma from group E.
This will be the fifth meeting between the two clubs since the turn of the century, three of which came in group play, with the most recent encounter coming in the 2008 knockout round. Roma bounced Madrid out of the tournament with two 2 – 1 wins, and took a 4 – 2 aggregate to the quarterfinals, where they lost to Manchester United.
Wolfsburg took group B’s top billing, and will now be facing Belgium’s Gent who took second in group H behind Zenit St. Petersburg. This will be the first time in Wolfsburg’s European history that they line up across the pitch with a club from Belgium, while Gent hasn’t played a Bundesliga outfit since the 2001 Intertoto Cup.
The two clubs are statistically even for the most part through the group stage results, which reveal…
Gent – Wolfsburg
8 Goals Scored 9
52 Possession 51
65 Total attempts 74
30 On target 29
18 Blocked Shots 14
2 Found Woodwork 1
The four clubs will take the pitch for the first leg on February 17, and play the return leg on March 8.
Moving on, Atletico Madrid took top honors in group C, and find themselves paired with PSV Eindhoven, who finished two points behind Wolfsburg in group B.
This marks the second meeting for the clubs and the first since the 2008-09 Champions League group stage. The two met in group D, and Atletico took both meetings home and away to finish in second place behind Liverpool. PSV finished fourth and were sent packing after group stage, while Atletico eventually fell to Porto in the knockout round of 16.
Manchester City came away with the top spot in group D and will be taking on Dynamo Kyiv in the knockout round. The last time these two met in European club competition, came in the 2010-11 Europa League round of 16.
Dynamo Kyiv came away with a surprising upset of Manchester United, with each club winning their home leg. Kyiv took the home leg in the Ukraine 2 – 0, and Manchester could only muster up a 1 – 0 result at Old Trafford leaving the English club out of the tournament. Kyiv were knocked out in the quarterfinals to Sporting Braga.
Those four clubs will find themselves on the pitch February 24 and play the second leg on March 15.
Barcelona took the first position in group E, and were the only club other than Real Madrid to not suffer a defeat in group stage. They will be facing second seeded Arsenal out of group F.
This will be the fifth Champions League meeting for the two clubs dating back to the 1999 campaign, one of which being the title match in the 2006 tournament that Barcelona won 2 – 1.
Both clubs met in 2010 and 2011, with Barcelona knocking Arsenal out of the tournament each time. In the 2010 quarterfinals, Barcelona took a 6 – 3 aggregate win, after a first leg 2 – 2 draw led to a 4 – 1 home win in Spain.
Barcelona got by Arsenal in the 2011 round of 16 with a 4 – 3 aggregate, and moved on to take the Champions League title in that campaign.
Bayern Munich took the top spot in group F with 15 points from five wins, finishing six points clear of Arsenal en route to the knockout round.
The German champions will be facing the Italian champions, as Juventus look to get back to the finals after coming up short last season to Barcelona.
Juventus finished second in group D behind Manchester City, with only one point separating the two clubs.
Those four clubs will be playing the first leg on February 23, and will meet again on March 16 for the return legs in Spain and Germany.
With all the controversy surrounding Chelsea in their Premier League campaign, the English side still managed to come away with the top spot in group G. After a 2014-15 season that provided hardware from both the league and the Capital One Cup wins, Jose Mourinho is at least getting decent results in European competition to ease some of the media pressure.
Chelsea will be facing Paris Saint-Germain in the round of 16, with many already calling for Chelsea to be humiliated against the French champions.
The two clubs met at this stage of the tournament a year ago, in which PSG prevailed by a 3 – 3 aggregate with two away goals in tow that came from the second meeting in England.
Zenit St. Petersburg lost out on their opportunity to reach a perfect 6 – 0 record in group stage, but still managed the top spot in group G regardless.
The Russian champions will be taking on Benfica, who came in second place in group C behind Atletico Madrid.
The two clubs met in last year’s Champions League group stage, with neither being able to come out of group C in that campaign. Zenit went on to a third place finish to arrive in Europa League, while Benfica placed last and were officially eliminated from further participation in club competition.
These four clubs will be playing the first leg on February 16, and will resume on March 9 for the return leg.
Let’s see what the line setters are putting out there for the odds on each club’s chances of taking the title this campaign.
Odds to Win UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2015/2016
Barcelona +200
Real Madrid +600
Bayern Munich +240
Chelsea +1700
Manchester City +1300
Juventus +2000
Paris Saint-Germani +1100
Atletico Madrid +1600
Arsenal +2300
Wolfsburg +8000
Benfica +12500
AS Roma +9000
PSV Eindhoven +15000
Zenit St. Petersburg +6000
Field +17000 (Gent or Dynamo Kyiv)
We will be offering match-by-match analysis and giving out predictions all throughout the rest of the tournament, which is simply a continuation of what has been done at BetDSI for the last two seasons by yours truly.
Be on the prowl for our Champions League knockout round articles here at Get More Sports, as we take you right through to the championship match at the San Siro in Milan, Italy on May 28, 2016.
