The second week of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 will do well to match the quality and spectacle of the first, but here’s hoping for more of the same from four matches that feature a quartet of former European champions – including two in opposition as old adversaries Chelsea and Barcelona cross swords again after a six-year gap in the standout fixture of the week.
Here’s a preview – with accompanying score predictions – of all four games:
Tuesday – CHELSEA v BARCELONA
The media build-up to this Stamford Bridge showdown has generally concentrated on two things – the great Lionel Messi’s failure to score in eight matches against Chelsea (twice as many as any other club he has faced for Barcelona) and Antonio Conte’s apparent anxiety and discomfort at the prospect of taking on a team that has not lost a game in either the Champions League or La Liga this season.
Conte confesses to having had sleepless nights in his quest to plot Barça’s downfall and prevent the Catalans from reaching the quarter-finals for a record-extending 11th successive year. I doubt, however, that Messi’s miserable record against Chelsea has kept him awake at night – though his Camp Nou penalty miss in the epic second leg of the 2011/12 semi-final, which the Londoners drew 2-2 to advance to the final at Barça’s expense, must surely have had him tossing and turning in frustration at the time.
It was at Stamford Bridge a dozen years ago that I first really saw Messi dazzle. Then 18, he helped Barça to a 2-1 win with a scintillating virtuoso display that included, alas, a theatrical fall and roll near the corner flag to get the Chelsea full-back he had been repeatedly tormenting, Asier Del Horno, sent off. The young maestro was injured in the second leg and missed the rest of the season, including the final. You would never label Messi a diver (even though he has master practitioner Luis Suárez alongside him in the Barcelona attack), so maybe it’s the guilt over that Del Horno incident that has plagued and haunted him all these years, subconsciously preventing him from putting the ball in the Chelsea net.
Prediction: Barcelona, likely to be at full strength in west London, haven’t lost a meaningful match all season under new boss Ernesto Valverde, and Chelsea are not playing well enough to end that record. 1-1
Tuesday – BAYERN MUNICH v BEŞIKTAŞ
Bayern are sky-high favourites to get through this tie – the only one of the round, incidentally, to feature two reigning domestic champions – and while Beşiktaş won all three of their away fixtures in the group stage (against Porto, Monaco and Leipzig), it is far-fetched to imagine they might stage an encore in the Allianz-Arena, where Bayern have won 14 of their 15 matches this season, drawing the other. Jupp Heynckes’ side have also won every one of their last 13 games in all competitions, whatever the venue, and appear perfectly primed to extend their Champions League adventure into the quarter-finals for the seventh season in a row.
Robert Lewandowski, incredibly, has scored in all 11 of Bayern’s Bundesliga games at the Allianz-Arena this season. He also found the target there in two of the three Champions League group fixtures. Beşiktaş, making their round of 16 debut, will be hard-pressed to repeat Celtic’s matchday three feat of keeping him quiet, but even in the highly unlikely event that the Pole has an off-night, there are other attacking options aplenty at Bayern’s disposal to give the Turkish side’s defence a busy evening.
Prediction: Bayern will show no mercy and put Beşiktaş to the sword throughout the 90 minutes. 3-0
Wednesday – SEVILLA v MANCHESTER UNITED
Gosh, is it really a year ago this week that Leicester City were playing at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán – in what would be Claudio Ranieri’s final fixture as manager? Leicester somehow scraped their way to a 2-1 defeat in Andalusia before an unforgettable 2-0 win in the home leg, and Sevilla, now led by ex-Milan coach Vincenzo Montella, will be eager to avoid a repeat as they eye a first ever qualification for the Champions League quarter-finals.
José Mourinho’s Manchester United have blown hot and cold this season. They have a decent chance of winning the FA Cup, but their failure to challenge Manchester City for the Premier League title leaves them under obligation from their fans to go far in the Champions League. They are firm favourites to win this tie – between the last two winners of the Europa League – if only because Sevilla, despite qualifying for the final of the Copa del Rey (they take on holders Barcelona in Madrid on 21 April), are no longer the force of old.
United rarely win in Spain – the 1-0 victory at Celta Vigo in last season’s Europa League semi-final was only their third success in 23 games on Spanish soil – but against that they have only lost ten of those fixtures, and Mourinho’s record against Sevilla while boss of Real Madrid was played eight, won seven.
Prediction: A hostile arena awaits United, who will be happy to avoid defeat and a 0-0. Sevilla twice held Liverpool in their group, and another score draw beckons here. 2-2
Wednesday – SHAKHTAR DONETSK v ROMA
Shakhtar have already crushed the Champions League dreams of one Italian club, Napoli, and having overcome Roma 6-2 on aggregate at this stage of the competition seven years ago (with a team that featured current Premier League stars Willian and Henrikh Mkhitaryan), the displaced club from Donetsk will fancy their chances of reaching the last eight as they take on the Giallorossi in their temporary home of Kharkiv.
Shakhtar boss Paulo Fonseca fielded virtually the same team throughout the group stage, in which they won all three home games, including one against Manchester City, and although they have only just emerged from a lengthy winter break – during which Roma dramatically lost form to plummet out of the Serie A title race – key attackers Facundo Ferreyra and Marlos were both in blistering form at the weekend in their first match back, a 5-0 win against Chornomorets Odesa.
Roma, who in the autumn impressively topped a group featuring Chelsea and Atlético Madrid, have duly recovered from their turn-of-the-year slump, winning their last three matches, during which their exciting 20-year-old Turkish winger Cengiz Ünder has scored four goals, so they do not travel to Ukraine without confidence.
Prediction: Shakhtar won all three group games at home but without keeping a clean sheet. That pattern will probably continue against Roma. 2-1
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