The 2nd round stage of the 2020/2021 UEFA Champions League is here as the competition gets hotter.
The first set of games for the round of 16 stages will be played on Tuesday 16th and Wednesday 17th of February respectively.
There will be involvement from one Italian team, two Spanish teams, one French team, one English team, two German teams and one Portuguese team for this week’s games.
As usual, football bettors can trust Net Bet to give the best odds and place their bets on the games to be played.
The biggest fixture for this week no doubt will be Barcelona playing host to Paris Saint Germain at the Camp Nou, as two regular foes in the competition in recent times gets to face off once again.
A struggling Liverpool will face RB Leipzig, as Cristiano Ronaldo will also return to Portugal where he started his career.
Here’s a Preview of the Round of 16 matches
BARCELONA VS PARIS SAINT GERMAIN
Barcelona’s season hasn’t been straightforward, but the Catalan giants have hit form at the right time, and they’re on a run of seven league wins. Their recent game against Deportivo Alaves on Saturday was a 5-1 win for them as Lionel Messi shone in the game.
PSG on their side have changed managers since the group stages with Mauricio Pochettino replacing Thomas Tuchel at the Parc De Princes. The French giants are second on the log with just a point behind leaders Lille.
When the draws were made, PSG were outright favourites, but with Barcelona’s recent resurgence in form, the game would be open ended and will be decided on who wants it the most.
RB LEIPZIG VS LIVERPOOL
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the first ever meeting between these two sides will hold at a neutral ground, in Budapest’s Puskas stadium.
Since Leipzig’s last group game against Manchester United, they have lost just twice in 13 games across all competitions and have a good form to make them take out the reds.
For Liverpool, they’ve been on a poor form, winning just 5 out of their last 15 games across all competitions, but they can bank on the confidence of being unbeaten in 10 games against German teams since 2002.
This game should provide goal at both ends.
FC PORTO VS JUVENTUS
For this game, the Italian side hold the edge for the round of 16 tie. Fc Porto are unbeaten since thier match day 1 loss to Manchester City.
Porto have lost four of their last ten matches in the UEFA Champions League proper (W5 D1) and have won only four of their last nine home European matches (D2 L3).
Juve, who are in the last 16 for the seventh season in a row, are unbeaten in their five previous matches against the Portuguese side (W4 D1) and come into this tie having finished first in Group G thanks to a remarkable Matchday 6 triumph at Barcelona.
Juventus should take as an outright win for themselves.
SEVILLA VS BORUSSIA DORTMUND
This is a game with no outright favourite, but Sevilla has the edge as they play at home.
Sevilla and Dortmund have played only twice previously, in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage. The Spanish side won 1-0 in Germany thanks to a first-half Luca Cigarini goal, before a 2-2 draw in Spain on Matchday 6 with Romaric (31) and Frédéric Kanouté (35) on target for the home side after Shinji Kagawa’s fourth-minute opener for Dortmund. Neven Subotić made it 2-2 four minutes after half-time, but Dortmund were unable to find a winning goal.
Sevilla should win this with a slim margin.