First leg of the Champions League Round of 16 ended yesterday and although the second legs have yet to be played, some games are all but decided. It’s very improbable that Eintracht Frankfurt could upset Napoli after losing a home game 0-2, a game in which the “Azzurri” confirmed their incredible run this season which is not limited to only the Italian championship. They dominated the whole game and they were able to win despite the penalty missed by Kvaratskhelia, who later assisted Di Lorenzo for the second goal (the first one was scored by Osimhen). Napoli controlled the game even more after the expulsion of Frankfurt’s Kolo Muani.

Another 0-2 game was set by the other up and coming team of the season. Benfica, which defeated Bruges at Jan Breydelstadion thanks to a Joao Mario penalty kick and a David Neres goal. The Portuguese team is continuing their amazing run so far this season, one in which they are on the top of home championship standings after shocking Psg, one of the favorite teams to win the competition. They finished in the first place of group stage, knocking Juventus out of the competition. On March 7, 2023 Benfica has the possibility to go through to the second leg. 

The last game which seems to have a clear favorite to the win is also the most surprising game of the round of 16, Liverpool vs. Real Madrid, in which the “Blancos” demolished the “Reds” 2-5, coming back from 2-0 for Liverpool, which shocked Madrid with two goals, scored by Nunez and Salah, in the first fifteen minutes. Salah’s goal was helped by a big mistake from Real’s goalkeeper Courtois, but Real equalized the result by the end of first half thanks to Vinicius Jr double (Liverpool’s goalkeeper Alisson made a mistake too), despite Real Madrid not playing very well. In the second half Real returned to form, scoring another three goals with Militao and Benzema’s double. It will be very hard for Liverpool to overturn the result at Santiago Bernabeu.

Benfica, Napoli and Real Madrid will have a big advantage in the second leg, however the other games are completely open and everything will be decided in the second leg. One of the biggest surprises has been Manchester City failing to go beyond 1-1 against Rb Leipzig. In fact, the Citizens dominated the first half but wasted many opportunities and scored just a goal with Mahrez, giving Leipzig the possibility to come back in the second half with Gvardiol’s goal. Manchester City is still the favorite team to go through but it looks like it will be close. The two teams of Milan city, AC Milan, and Inter will be slightly favored compared to Tottenham and Porto in the second leg, by virtue of 1-0 home wins, but it’ll be anything but easy to confirm the result in the second leg since they will play away games. Nerazzurri got the better of the Portuguese team thanks to a late goal by Lukaku, while the Rossoneri must ensure that they do not regret the many occasions they missed after Brahim Diaz goal.

Finally, Chelsea and Paris Saint Germain will have to avoid an early elimination by overturning the result against Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munchen after they both lost the first leg by a score of 1-0 (Adeyemi scored for Dortmund, former Psg player Coman for Bayern). These results only continue the crisis that both teams have recently been facing in their national league, despite Psg is still on top of the standing in Ligue 1. The mission for Paris will be even more difficult than Chelsea’s since they have to play an away game for the second league. A possible elimination would be devastating for Chelsea since they spent more than 300 million euros in the last transfer session and for Paris would be yet another European disappointment after the ones of last season. This shows that there’s more to soccer than money. Now, the attention is focused on the second leg, which will be played on March 7-8 and on March 14-15.