The round of 16 of the Champions League will start this Tuesday with the participation of the two big contenders for the title,
Manchester City and Real Madrid
, playing the first leg in Copenhagen and Leipzig.
The European event comes at a great time for both 'Citizens' and the whites and it does not seem that neither Copenhagen nor RB Leipzig have the capacity to knock the last two champions out of the competition, City in 2023 and Real Madrid one year before.
Madrid, with many injuries... and a lot of squad
Despite the plague of injuries it is suffering this season, especially in defense, the Spanish team has only lost two games this season, both against Atlético de Madrid (one in LaLiga and another in the Copa del Rey) and last weekend This week they left the league title almost sealed after beating second-placed Girona 4-0, whom they now lead by 5 points.
For the duel in Germany, coach
Carlo Ancelotti
will once again have to field a defense of circumstances, with Dani Carvajal and Aurélien Tchouameni as an improvised axis, since the four centre-backs of the squad are injured, in addition to goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Even more serious: in the match against Girona,
Jude Bellingham suffered a sprained left ankle
and will not be available either, leaving Real Madrid without its top scorer this season (16 goals in LaLiga and 4 in the Champions League). .
But the white team can count on the great playing moment of men like Vinicius Jr, Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Díaz to dream of moving forward in search of the 15th title in its history.
Unstoppable City: they won ten of (the last) ten
Pep's team, for its part, has won its last 10 games played, including all competitions, and
has also recovered in time its scorer Erling Haaland
, who was absent for several weeks due to injury, and who scored the two goals at the weekend. in the victory against Everton.
These good results have catapulted Pep Guardiola's team to second place in the Premier League standings, two points behind leader Liverpool, although with one less game that could allow them to climb to first place.
In addition to Haaland, the current European champion has the backbone of the team that won the first 'Orejona' in City history last season, with its constellation of stars (De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Foden, Julián Álvarez , Ruben Dias...).
The rest of the qualifiers will be played between Wednesday and next week, in a round of 16 that will last over the next month.
First leg of the Champions League round of 16 qualifiers
Tuesday February 13:
5:00 p.m. (Fox Sports)
Copenhagen - Manchester City
5:00 p.m. (ESPN)
Leipzig - Real Madrid
Wednesday, February 14:
5:00 p.m.
Paris Saint-Germain - Real Sociedad
5:00 p.m.
Lazio - Bayern Munich
Tuesday February 20
Inter - Atlético
PSV Eindhoven - Borussia Dortmund
Wednesday February 21
Porto - Arsenal
Naples - Barcelona
This is how the second leg matches of the Champions League round of 16 will be
.
Tuesday March 5
Real Sociedad - Paris SG
Bayern Munich - Lazio
Wednesday March 6
Manchester City - Copenhagen
Real Madrid - Leipzig
Tuesday March 12
Arsenal - Porto
Barcelona - Naples
Wednesday March 13th
Atlético - Inter
Borussia Dortmund - PSV Eindhoven