The champions league is returning this week with the round of 16. There are 2 legs to the fixtures. First one home and then away. Both games are a few weeks apart. There are currently 16 teams remaining in the competition. The surprising events in the group stages were the elimination of title holders Chelsea and Manchester City as well as big-spenders Zenit St. Peterborough. Zenit spent a total of $90m for Hulk and Witsel. Chelsea brought some young stars to their ranks such as Hazard, Marin, Oscar, Moses and Azpilicueta. They finished third in their group meaning they qualify for the knockout rounds of the Europa League. Juventus and Shakter Donetsk qualified from Chelsea's group. Man City was in the so-called group of death which consisted of Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Man City and Ajax. Dortmund and Real Madrid qualified. Malaga and Milan qualified at the expense of Zenit. There are some super-fixtures in the round of 16:
The standout fixture is Real Madrid vs. Manchester United. This fixture sees Cristiano Ronaldo face his former club, Manchester United. Another interesting game is Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich were last year's finalists. The reason it is interesting is because nobody knows which Arsenal will show up. The Arsenal which lost to League 2 side Bradford City or the Invincible Arsenal. Shakter vs. Dortmund should be interesting because Shakter Donetsk is a very capable side and they managed to beat Chelsea. Shakter might have a disadvantage because the lost their star man Willian to Anzhi.
My Predictions for first leg:
Juventus 1-1 Celtic.
Galtasaray 0-1 Schalke 04
Arsenal 1-0 Bayern Munich
Shakter Donetsk 1-2 Borussia Dortmund
AC Milan 2-2 Barcelona
Real Madrid 2-1 Manchester United
Valencia 0-1 PSG
Porto 0-0 Malaga
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