2014/15 Champions League: Round of 16 predictions

The 2014/15 Champions League season resumes mid-week with some cracking matches on the horizon to kick off the second half of this year’s competition. Standout ties include Juventus versus Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain taking on Chelsea, but the biggest clashes of the round have to be Manchester City’s two battles with Barcelona. Last season’s finalists from both sides of Madrid face German opposition, while a number of other European heavyweights are expected to negotiate their fixtures with relative comfort. Read on to see each fixture summarised (with a little bit of early news thrown in). And to boot, there’s a prediction about which teams will progress into the last eight. Are there going to be any upsets? Let’s see.

#1 Manchester City vs Barcelona

The tie of the round doesn’t take place until Tuesday next week, and it’s pretty crazy just how things can change over the course of a few months. Plenty of Manchester City fans may have fancied their chances of revenge on Barcelona when the draw was made back in December, but the Catalan club have come through their rough patch, sorted the differences between Lionel Messi and Luis Enrique, and are flying again.

City, on the other hand, have shown their defence's frailties against some of the weakest teams in the Premier League and even clubs in the Championship (think the FA Cup home defeat to Middlesbrough). Matters don’t bode well for Manuel Pellegrini and while City will have the likes of Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony and Sergio Aguero to call upon, Barcelona’s own stars should be out in full force.

Barca will obviously look to get the ball down and play, pulling City’s banks of four around in search of a gap. The Premier League champions simply have to remain diligent and give Lionel Messi and Co nothing to feed on, though that is slightly easier said than done. City have not grown since last season, so expect similar results to what we saw in last season’s round of 16.

Prediction: Barcelona will chase the win in the first leg and the result of that would be purely down to how City defend, but Barca will be too strong at Camp Nou.

Aggregate Score Prediction: Manchester City 2-4 Barcelona