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Champions League round of 16 (14/2 & 15/2)

After several months of waiting, with a World Cup right in the middle, the UEFA Champions League is finally back with the first leg of the round of 16. And while a couple of matches are still waiting to happen next week, we already got the first four matches of this leg, and there were some interesting elements to analyze.

The big game of this round was certainly Paris Saint-Germain against the German giants, Bayern Munich. The game was played in Paris, and Bayern was the superior team for the vast majority of the game, having more shots, with Kingsley, an academy product of the French team, scoring the game’s lone goal for the Germans.

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There were some controversies near the end of the game, with Kylian Mbappe having a goal ruled out by VAR, although the decision by the referee proved to be true. And Bayern defender Benjamin Pavard was sent off in thematch’s final minutesh after receiving his second yellow card.

The match between Club Brugge of Belgium and Benfica of Portugal got the least amount of attention from the media. However, Club Brugge got rid of Atletico Madrid and Benfica did the same to Juventus, so both teams had to go through tough times to get here. However, the Portuguese proved superior in terms of ball possession and chances created, with Joao Mario scoring a penalty and David Neres securing the 2-0 score in the match’s final minutes.

Both Tottenham Hotspur and their manager, the Italian Antonio Conte, have struggled in the Champions League for most of their respective histories, and this seems to repeat itself in this leg against AC Milan. The Italian side proved to be dominant, even if the English club had some chances here and there, but failed to make something out of it.

Milan attacking player Brahim Diaz put the Italians in the lead in the opening minutes of the game and his team managed to protect said lead during the rest of the match, thus showing a level of maturity that this young Milan side didn’t show last season in the competition when they bowed out in the group stages. However, the series is still quite open, and Tottenham, led by an inspired Harry Kane, can still turn it around.

A very similar situation happened in Germany, with local side Borussia Dortmund defeating English team Chelsea by a 1-0 score. The goal, scored by Karim Adeyemi, was a great counterattack that left several Chelsea players on the side before slotting it in.

There have been a lot of opinions and takes regarding Chelsea and their spending spree in the January transfer window, but is also worth pointing out that so many new players require time to gel and really get going, so we have to wait and see. Having said that, they need to do so quickly if they want to turn things around in the second leg.

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