The start of the round of 16 which in my opinion is a bit strange, because no English representative has won in the first leg of the last 16 of the Champions League this season:
Borussia Dortmund vs Chelsea 1-0
AC Milan vs Tottenham 1-0
Liverpool vs Real Madrid 2-5.
RB Leipzig vs Manchester City 1-1
but the draw in the first leg still has a chance in the second leg, unless Liverpool is just a miracle for Liverpool to be able to turn things around in the second leg at home to Real Madrid.
So City is the only team to get a draw in the first leg between EPL teams  Basically City has the advantage of playing home next time while Liverpool chances are tiny since they will play away with a minus 3 goals to return to the point zero.. Chelsea and Spurs will have home games that won't be easy since they are 1 goal behind them. |
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Lionel Messi returning to Barcelona very difficult but not impossible – Romero
Messi isn't Neymar or Bale who seeks money rather than anything else so they will not move when they found a better opportunity with lower salary. Messi was forced to quit Barcelona but I think he will return whenever he finds that PSG is a hopeless team, especially when it gets sacked from Champions League. Losing Ligue 1 will be a no way to stay message in his head. |
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I expect something to happen this Summer one way or another. I don't think that Zidane will take another year off and there are some clubs who may already be negotiating with him. It woud almost be negligent to not negotiate with him and get some feedback. He is probably in talks with Madrid, Liverpool, PSG, and Chelsea.
Zidane would have accepted to be the coach of France national team if that was offered for him but I think that wasn't the case in the first place. Harsh words targeted him from the head of the French football federation before he gets sacked and I believe there was some tensions between them. At the same time, Deschamps still wants to be in the picture so I don't think Zidane will wait for 4 years to be selected. He will most likely move and chose a team to train. Maybe Liverpool? Chelsea? Back to Real Madrid with Mbappe in his side? PSG maybe? |
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-snip-
Sevilla improved indeed and they are now in the 12th place in La Liga after they were in the relegation zone for quite long period, mainly before World Cup. They won with 3 goals to 0 vs PSV making them favourites in the second leg since they will play comfortably at the opposite of PSV where they will play under pressure. For the other teams, the results were either a draw or a 1 point difference so the second leg will be crucial for all the teams. |
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How to make the game interesting?
Just play without goalkeepers, crazy 2-3 for Real Madrid, while Napoli is doing his job vs a weaker opponent.
Goalkeepers made horrible mistakes in a top level game where every simple inattention could lead to a goal.. For the second goal of Real Madrid for example, the amount of errors made from the attack line of Liverpool back to the goalkeeper are incredible. The result is Liverpool 2-5 Real Madrid with few minutes left in the game. Catastrophic failure for Liverpool and an awesome comeback for Real Madrid as usual in UCL  |
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-snip-
Napoli scored 56 goals in 23 games, half of them were scored by Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia (28 goals) together! We all know Osimhen but Kvaratskhelia not only scared 10 goals but he had also 9 assists. BTW Napoli is playing right now vs Frankfurt in Champions League and the result is still 0-0 in the first 30 minutes of the game. |
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Liverpool 2 - 0 Real Madrid in 15 minutes of the game!! Nunez scored a nice goal followed 10 minutes later by a goal by Salah. Courtois wasn't lucky in the beginning of this game. I know Real Madrid could not be underestimated even if Liverpool win in this leg but seriously if this game ends by more goals then it will the end of the trip for Real Madrid  Edit: V Junior scored! Liverpool 2 - 1 Real Madrid. 3 goals in 21 minutes! |
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Yes, it's true, Neymar does have a pretty serious history of injuries, I mean he often gets injured. Also, the tight schedule played by Paris Saint Germain also affects the fitness of the players so that their players are prone to injury. The coach must be good at rotating players, if he can't do that, then they will experience very detrimental things for them in the future. Galtier is rotating his players, you can take a look on lineups of different games to see that but his options become limited when he has keys players injured like Mbappe or missing like Messi after World Cup or when the team is not doing good at all and needs to play with full power. For Neymar, he always acts like injured at a point his injuries become more frequent and people took some time to trust him.. |
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There is a really big drop in Leverkusen's form again really. They started to lose many points in the Bundesliga and this reflected on their Europa League game against Monaco as well.
And this time they lost to Mainz by 3-2 in a home game. There were a red card and a penalty missed by Tapsoba. The reason of this loss was bad defending indeed. Xabi Alonso actually had a good run first but things started to be upside down again. But at least they are still in a safe distance with the relegation zone now. However this doesn't mean they can be very relieved. They should do their best to get away as much as possible.
Leverkusen is playing bad this season and it is good to see them far from the relegation zone. I don't expect them to get a European competition spot this season. They just have to keep some positive results to avoid getting near relegation and try to figure out a way to improve the team. Even Europa League won't be easy for them, especially that they missed the first leg vs Monaco.. |
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Conte would actually be just the manager for Juventus. I mean he would fit the team really good as he managed Juventus in the past also.
He got 3 Serie A titles and 2 Italian Super Cup titles in his career with Juventus. I don't think they would say no to try such change by the end of this season. Conte's career has been in Italy mostly so far therefore I don't doubt he would like to return there at some point also. Tottenham don't have a very good season now as you know. This would be another factor for Conte to rethink about his future here. His contract ends in the summer and he can just decide to wait for the end of it and think about what to do in the meantime.
Spurs are unstable from years, at least with Conte they were able to resist a bit and fight for a Champions League spot. I doubt he will continue with them, at least he could end the year with something. Getting back to Serie A might be interesting for him, nevertheless the instability of players and teams here is worst than EPL. He can try his chance obviously with Juve if they ask him to come. |
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Atletico played very well in this match, they really had a condition where they really dominated the whole 90 minutes of the game. This is what they should have done from the start by having a sporadic attack scheme and of course this match was more exciting than them only focusing on defense.
Position 4 is comfortable for them but Sociedad's 2 points now can still be passed if their performance continues like this.
ATM collected many points in the last games that made them able to pass Betis and be 2 points behind Sociedad. I don't fully agree with position 4 is comfortable for ATM since 2 rounds failure will make them drop behind Betis. ATM should keep positive results to get the 3rd position and stay away from the 5th place so they can guarantee a place for the UCL |
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United has had a very nice season overall. We can no longer compare this team with the team that became champions for years in a row and was the absolute number 1 in England. But we can compare the current performance with the performance of last season, and if you look at that, there is a lot of improvement. I think they can do even better. Of course they don't have someone like De Bruyne and Haaland, they often make the difference at City. United has invested a lot of money in signings, such as Antony and Casemiro. Antony may still make a somewhat disappointing impression. After all, you can expect a bit more from someone worth 100 million and he doesn't always play either.
ManU cannot be compared to the last seasons nor to the beginning of the actual one. If we take a look on the team few months ago, they were performing very poorly at some points, they were the joke of EPL. Things changed luckily for them which wasn't the case for Chelsea nor Liverpool. At the same time, gunners took the lead while City dropped a little although they have better players. There is still time to see how things will evolve |
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Schalke are doing terribly in the Bundesliga this season, they are not the same anymore, and with Union Berlin's form I don't think they stand a chance against them, it's going to be a win for Union Berlin to take the lead in the league.
Schalke is doing terribly from several seasons that's why they relegated and will relegate again this season probably.. Bayern is joking for real. Imagine them winning vs PSG then losing vs M'Gladbach which already lost with 4 goals vs Hertha and got a draw vs Schalke! Incredible Even the red card can't be an excuse there.. |
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I thought that 20 points possible for napoli but it seems like intermilan was still lucky to scored two goals before full time.  Another good result by milan even though the club was winning only with 1 goal against monza but that's good enough rather than get nothing. Another upcoming match that looks so easy to bet is atalanta vs lecce. Im sure that 90% atalanta will be wining against lecce consider lecci has horrible performance during last 5 matches. Juventus vs spezia gonna be easy bet too. Top clubs won in this round so far without problems. There is Atalanta, Juve, Lazio and Roma that have yet to play and were expected to win too indeed. Napoli has to win in 10 games out of 15 to be declared winner of the scudetto which is likely to occur seeing their actual performance. |
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The amount of unexpected result this round is incredible! Chelsea defeated by Southampton, the team that is sitting in the last place Newcastle lost vs Liverpool. The funny part is that Liverpool scored 2 goals before Newcastle has a red card then didn't score vs 10 players.. Nottingham 1 - 1 City. A joke since they missed an opportunity to keep the gap low.. |
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It was definitely a hard-fought win for Real Madrid despite the final score's being 2-0.
The statistics are also proving this clearly even if you check them only. Osasuna were able to play comfortably against Real Madrid in this game. There wasn't a big gap between the number of passes and total shots as well. Besides ball possession percentages were also very close. Real Madrid's first goal even came while we were about to enter last ten minutes. Benzema was injured again. Maybe they might have broken the deadlock easier in his presence. But the important point is that they didn't make any mistake here.
There is no time left for Real Madrid to commit mistakes. They are already 5 points behind Barcelona which still has a game to play vs Cadiz. The odds are ridiculous for Cadiz to win or even draw while playing an away game.. The gap will most likely return to 8 points again. For ATM, they can reduce the difference between them and Sociedad to 2 points once they win vs Bilbao |
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Aston Villa 2 - 4 Arsenal
The final result was quite impressive after seeing 2-2 after 90 minutes of the game!
Pulling 2 goals in the extra time was unexpected and Aston Villa failed to keep the one point they have the whole time. Congratulations for gunners for the victory and for maintaining 3 points gap between them and City
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Last season Real Madrid became the best team in La Liga and also in the Champions League by winning titles in both competitions. Meanwhile, this season is starting to look a little different from last season through Real Madrid's performances so far, but for now Real Madrid isn't bad enough in the Champions League and also in La Liga, even though it's a little behind Barcelona. Because the time to rise like last season for Real Madrid is still very much now, so judging it for now is still not quite right in my opinion.
Real Madrid doesn't look to be the best team in Champions League nor it is the first in La Liga, yet it should not be underestimated especially that the players are aware of how hard to get La Liga title so they will give all their attentions to UCL. I think everyone remember how Real Madrid flipped the table on the head of every opponent thinking they were winning at the end of the games! |
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Osasuna is a more serious opponent for Real Madrid after a comfortable matchup against Elche. They had better be more careful with their defending especially. Osasuna are more productive in their home matches compared to the away ones. This is why Real Madrid shouldn't underestimate them here. I know how dominant they have been against Osasuna in away matches as well. But they still have weaknesses against smaller teams in the league these days.
This was why Barcelona were comfortable about having a big gap with them in the standings. I hope to see a clear victory by Real Madrid with a decent effort.
When we talk about the defence line then Barcelona is the most effective one by far with only 7 goals received in 21 games. Getting 1 goal in every 3 matches is something very good Meanwhile, Real Madrid received 17 goals and the other teams received more. For the attack line, they have almost the same number of goals making Barcelona players more efficient in general |
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Aston Villa 2 - 2 Arsenal +80 minutes in the game although gunners trying to get the 3 points at any cost. Time is running fast out of them and City will be more than happy to reduce the gap to only 1 point. Arteta will be depressed if his players fail to score in the remaining time |
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