Europe’s top club competition will return on the 16th of February with the knockout fixtures played by the qualified teams. Like every year, the tournament is full of excitement, drama, heartbreaks and triumphs. There were some changes to the format that enabled four teams from all top three leagues to join the competition even if last year’s title holders belonged to their league, which allowed for a couple of teams to make it into this year’s UEFA Champions League group stages. As the competition enters the knockout phase, there will be tense moments as big clubs from all across Europe try to defeat each other.
Last Season
The final for 2015 UEFA Champions League was played in the Berlin stadium Olympiastadion between favourites Barcelona and the unexpected Italian team Juventus. The match was pretty exciting with open game play from both sides, a rare sight considering the fact tournament finals tend to be boring with tactical game play. Barcelona won the 2015 UEFA Champions League 3-1 with goals from Rakitic, Suarez and Neymar for the Catalan side. Morata scored the only goal for the Old Lady. The 18-player squad of the season announced by UEFA had 10 Barcelona players and five Juventus players – an indication how badly the other European teams performed over the course of the tournament.
2015-16 UEFA Champions League
This year the team slots were allocated for each country according to the country’s performance in the European competitions from the 2009-10 to 2013-14 seasons. Some countries were handed additional slots due to the their respective clubs performing well in other competitions such as the Europa League.
At present, 78 top teams from 53 different football associations are participating in the current season. In total, 96 matches have been played before the start of the knockout stages. The top scorer until now is Cristiano Ronaldo with 11 goals for Real Madrid. Other stats include 280 goals scored (2.92 per match) and the total attendance being 3,556,049 (average of 37,042 per match).
Group Stages
32 teams qualified for the proper group stages that saw them placed into groups of eight each with four teams. The group draw was held in Monaco on the 27th of August 2015. To keep the matches interesting, the only restriction was teams from the same association weren’t allowed to be placed into the same group.
As for the placement of top teams, we had Real Madrid with Paris Saint-Germain in Group A, Manchester United and PSV Eindhoven were congregated in Group B, Group C had Atletico Madrid and Benfica, Sevilla, who was given direct qualification to the group stage as they won the Europa League last season, was drawn with Manchester City and last year’s runners-up Juventus in Group D, Barcelona, Roma, and Bayer Leverkusen got into the same Group E, Bayern Munich and Arsenal were placed in Group F, Chelsea was drawn in Group G, and Valencia was drawn into Group H.
The group matches started on the 15th of September 2015 with many upsets. Manchester United couldn’t qualify for the knockout stage and their manager LVG was nearly sacked for it. Valencia’s manager Nuno wasn’t so lucky and when Valencia couldn’t proceed further from the group stage, he was replaced by Gary Neville.
Knockout Stages
The knockout matches are played in a similar fashion as the group stage matches with the only difference being there are only 16 teams – winner and runner’s up from all of the groups. The teams facing each other play two legs, home and away, to decide the winner. Extra time and penalties can be played if they teams are still on level terms after the two legs. The matches will be played from the 16th of February to the 28th of May. On a side note, the political unrest between Ukraine and Russia pushed UEFA to decide that clubs from both the countries will not be drawn against each other.
Round of 16
The first match of the Round of 16 will be played between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea. The club from London is headed by interim manager Guus Hiddink and has remained unbeaten under him until now in the English Premier League. PSG is currently on top of Ligue 1 and will be coming into the game with a lot of confidence.
The other match played on the first day is between Benfica and Zenit Saint Petersburg from Russia. Other interesting matches include Roma vs. Real Madrid, Arsenal vs. Barcelona, and Juventus vs. Bayern Munich. All of these matches are expected to provide enthralling nail biting football action.
The Final: Venue and Host City
The quarterfinals will be played between the 5th of April and the 13th of April with the semi-finals scheduled to be played between the 26th of April and the 4th of May. The final match will be hosted by Milan, Italy at the San Siro stadium, which is the home ground for both AC Milan and Inter Milan. Unfortunately, both teams aren’t participating this season. Still, this match will prove to be very beneficial for the Italian economy and will help to reignite the footballing passion that has seen a rapid decline in the country. It’s a great chance for Juventus to take revenge for its defeat last year at the hands of Barcelona. With the local Italian crowd on its back, it will be interesting to see Juventus play in the final.
Expectations and Odds
Most of the teams look strong on paper with every team having match-winning players. Expect Barcelona to play with great confidence against any team while Real Madrid is looking like a force to reckon with due to Zidane’s hire as manager. Arsenal on the other hand has lost their form of late. As for Bayern, the team’s dressing room morale might be a big question after it was announced that manager Pep Guardiola will be the manager of Manchester City from the next season. And then there is Juventus that has seen a lot of transfer season activity in recent years but still manages to look cohesive in matches.
And what about the English Premier League? Can the English teams silence the critics who are questioning if the EPL really is in fact host to the best football in Europe? Check out the odds courtesy of William Hill to see where the bookmakers think the teams stack up against one another.
【2015-16 UEFA Champions League Outright Winner Odds】
※ Current Odds Date & Time: February 12, 2:00 a.m. (GMT)
