UCL round of 16: 5 things we learned
The UEFA Champions League always brings a special feeling with it. Star players and the biggest teams across country boundaries on the biggest stage in club football is the dream of football fans and the UCL tends to deliver.
It gets even more exciting when the big teams get matched up against each other from the knockout rounds. The 2018/19 UCL round of 16 first leg ties have been an exciting watch and it bodes well for the second leg ties.
Lyon and Liverpool held Barcelona and Bayern Munich respectively to goalless draws. This hands the advantage to the away team in the second leg. The three other English sides fared differently. Manchester United was beaten at home by French champions, PSG while Manchester City and Tottenham earned victories to take back to the second leg.
Roma and Real Madrid earned a narrow advantage over their respective oppositions while Juventus and Atletico Madrid proved to be the matchup of the round as predicted by many football fans and pundits. Atletico took a 2:0 advantage to Turin for the second leg.
Here, we consider five things we learned from the first leg of the UCL round of 16 action.
#1 Barcelona have to pick up
At the start of this season's UCL group stage, Lionel Messi announced to the world via the Spanish radio station, Catalunya Radio, that it was imperative that they lift the UCL trophy after repeated seasons of knock out heartbreak to Atletico Madrid, Roma and Juventus.
"It's time. This year we have the Champions League again. We've gone out in the quarter-finals three years in a row and the last time was the worst of all, because of how we played and that we came with a result that was in our favor. We have to focus on the Champions League for the club, the team, and the fans. We have a spectacular team – that's why we say that, because we can compete for the Champions League."
Barca's UCL campaign started off brightly with three consecutive victories in which they scored 10 goals and conceded only two. The other three games of the group saw a drop off in performance levels and results. One narrow victory and two draws with four goals scored and three conceded saw questions raised about Barca's chances of realistically winning the UCL title.
Barcelona's tame showing in the first leg draw against Olympique Lyonnais has seen those questions raised as the Catalans could not get the all-important away goal against the French outfit. The second leg will be a tricky tie for the Catalans as the away goal rule remains in place and hands the advantage to Lyon on paper.
Meanwhile, Barcelona are still struggling with their stars like Luis Suarez, Phillipe Coutinho and Samuel Umtiti. During the game against Lyon, Suarez surpassed 24 hours without a goal or an assist in the Champions League.
Coutinho continues to struggle for form and confidence in a Barca shirt while Ousmane Dembele increasingly looks like a player that can be either absolutely brilliant or totally useless.
If Barca must emerge victorious as continental champions at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in June, they must pick up very quickly or face the prospect of knock out elimination yet again.
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