After a four month forced hiatus, the 2019/20 Champions League is set to resume on Saturday morning (AEST).
The final four 2nd leg fixtures will be played out this weekend before the tournament is taken to Portugal, where the remaining eights teams will play out a series of one-legged ties until a champion is crowned!
Our in-house Champions League Clairvoyant has previewed the four remaining Round of 16 fixtures and has provided his best betting plays along the way!
First leg: Lyon 1 – Juve 0
Despite taking a one goal advantage into the second leg, not many pundits are backing Lyon to progress through to the quarterfinals.
The French side have only played one (competitive) match across the past four months, which they lost to PSG on penalties.
Alternatively, I Bianconeri have played out 14 matches on their way to their 9th consecutive Serie A title.
Ronaldo was the linchpin in Juve’s campaign, scoring an unprecedented 31 league goals!
It’ no secret the the UCL is Cristiano’s favourite tournament, the Portuguese striker is the all-time leading goal scorer in the comp, sitting 14 strikes ahead of arch rival Messi.
The Italian Giants have scored 2+ goals in their last 12 competitive home fixtures, which puts them in very good steed to turn around their one goal deficit.
First leg: Real 1 – City 2
City are in the box seat to qualify through to the quarterfinals, after seeing off the Spanish Champions 2-1 in the 1st leg in Madrid!
Real will be without their captain for the 2nd leg, with Ramos seeing red in the dying stages of the opening leg.
Los Blancos have impressively won 10 of their final 11 league fixtures on the way to their 34th La Liga title, Karim Benzema has played a huge part in their success, scoring four goals across their last four matches.
City will be without talisman Sergio Aguero, who remains sidelined though injury, leaving the inconstant Jesus to lead the line.
Madrid have won their previous seven Round of 16 away matches and with Zidane back at the helm I’m backing them to find another result here.
First leg: Napoli 1 – Barca 1
Barcelona are undefeated across their last 35 UCL home fixtures, claiming 31 wins and 4 draws across that trip.
Napoli have lost their past three away UCL fixtures and will be heading into this fixture without attacking gem Lorenzo Insigne.
Meanwhile, Messi is full fit and has scored at least one goal in five of Barca’s last seven home fixtures.
It’s too early in the comp for the Catalans to completely choke, as such I’ll be backing Messi to lift his side over the line here.
First Leg: Chelsea 0 – Bayern 3
This tie is done!
Chelsea shat the bed during the opening leg, allowing ex-arsenal want away Gnabry to score a double on the way to an embarrassing 0-3 home defeat.
To make matters worse, Lampard will be without a host of his starting 11, with Alonso, Pulisic, Jorginhp, Azpilicueta, Pedro and potentially Willian all missing through suspension and injury.
Bayern are arguably the form side in Europe at the moment, the German giants haven’t lost a match since December 7th, claiming 26 wins and 1 draw!
Robert Lewandowski has scored 51 goals across all comps this season and will be confident on adding a few more to his already impressive tally here.