Tomorrow, the UCL returns and as usual, I am making my predictions for the second leg of the round of 16 ties. You can tell me your predictions down below.

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Manchester City - Real Madrid

There are a lot of variables to take into consideration here and it’s a very difficult game to predict. City have a 2-1 lead, with two away goals and Ramos suspended. Real come from being champions of LaLiga and City from losing against Arsenal.

Pep always tries to win the battle in midfield, he wants to always have superiority in numbers over his rival everywhere. IMO he is going to play with a 4-3-3, with KDB as a false 9 dropping deep and helping have that 4 vs 3 in the midfield. I think this is the right call.

Casemiro, Kroos and Valverde is as good as a midfield can get and shutting them down is the key. I also think Pep won’t try to attack through the middle, he knows that with Casemiro in there he won’t succeed. He’ll use that 2-3-5 he loves in attack.

As for Madrid, I expect them to use Benzema’s amazing target man work and Vinicius electric movement and pace to break City’s backline. City’s CB’s are slow and they’ll find it very hard against Vinicius and Valverde, who both have great movement and power.

This is going to be a very interesting game, a pretty close one. I think not having Ramos, a captain with experience in the UCL, and City having a powerful attack and a great tactician as coach, is going to be enough for Madrid to lose the tie.

Winner: Manchester City

Juventus - Olympique Lyon

I think this match depends on Sarri’s XI choice. He has been playing dodgy starting line-ups, specially in midfield, and they have been very poor. On the other hand, Lyon played very little competitive football, only 1 game in the last 5 months.

I expect Lyon to play with a 3-5-2, they are defensively solid and it allows them to match Juve’s numbers in midfield, plus, two strikers that stay wide to attack the spaces left by the full-backs. This is exactly the way they played in the Coupe de la Ligue and were good vs PSG.

Juve are ultimately the greater side though, with a lot of experience and the ultimate big game player. Ronaldo always comes in clutch in these kind of matches, we’ve seen it last year vs Atlético.

Winner: Juventus

Bayern München - Chelsea

I think this match is pretty done and dusted. Chelsea are doing very well in the transfer market, but those new signings can’t play. Plus, they’ve got a lot of key players injured and their morale shouldn’t be high having lost the FA cup final.

And Bayern are probably the most in form team in the world, having an unplayable Müller with a fantastic coach. I also don’t think Lampard is tactically good enough to come back from a 3-0.

Winner: Bayern München

Barcelona - Napoli

This one’s tricky, Barcelona have done so bad against teams that sit on a low block and counter under Setién and Napoli have been quite good in big games. Barça just need one goal though and with Messi in the team that’s very achievable.

I expect Napoli to play in their usual 4-4-2, defending with those two compact lines of 4 and two up top to attack the wide spaces. Napoli have been defensively solid under Gatusso and won the Coppa Italia final against Juve who just couldn’t break their defensive shape.

Setién’s possession football has been quite average and struggled a lot against defensively solid teams. They don’t have the players that the system requires and many of their players aren’t in the best of forms. Players like Busquets and Suárez look slow and very out of form.

I think Barça should use the 4-1-2-1-2, with a midfield of FDJ, Vidal, Rakitić and Messi, with Griezmann and Suárez up top. However, I doubt Setién would do that. I believe Napoli’s defensive shape would be too much for Barça.

Winner: Napoli

So, these are my predictions for the round of 16 ties. It’s nice to have the UCL back and I hope I get some of these predictions right. Hope you liked it, I’ll be doing them again in the quarter finals.

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