Champions League Battle
The race is on for the sixteen teams remaining in the Champions League. Fans across the world are watching hoping their team are good enough to progress.
David Flores [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]
Players from all around the world have one achievement in mind right now: The Champions League trophy
Sixteen teams are left to battle for the elusive and coveted Champions League trophy. Over the past two weeks, eight fixtures have been played with each team hoping to advance into the next round. Each game will take place twice, once in their home stadium and once in their opponents stadium. The team that will progress is the team that accumulates more goals than their opponents throughout the two legs. Each team has played their first fixture with the second fixtures beginning in two weeks.
A few games headlining the Round of Sixteen are: PSG – Manchester United, Atletico Madrid – Juventus, and Lyon – Barcelona. With PSG missing their two star players, Edinson Cavani and Neymar, Manchester United believed their home advantage wasn’t the only asset they had. However PSG scored two second half goals with Prensel Kimpembe scoring his first ever goal for the French club, defeating the English club two to zero. Manchester United is in need of an outstanding performance at the Parc des Princes to beat the Parisian team.
Lyon played against Messi and Barcelona last week drawing the Catalan club zero to zero. Though it was an exciting bout, the game remained scoreless after 90 minutes with the Barcelona club shooting 25 shots throughout the match.
Numerous soccer fans shared their thoughts and predictions of the Champions League. Though four out of six interviewees support Real Madrid, fans believe Barcelona has the best shot to win the trophy with Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Juventus other fan favorites.
Ben McGee, Lafayette Senior, said, “Unfortunately, I support Celtic FC who have not had a very strong club in years.” Celtic FC, who are currently in the Europa league, have reached the round of 16 in the Champions League 3 times in the past 15 seasons. Lafayette Sophmore Cannon Newell, told me how he struggles with being an Arsenal fan. “It is a struggle watching my team because we have narrowly missed out on the top four position throughout the past few seasons.” The top four clubs in the Premier League are the teams who are eligible to play in the Champions League.
Fans are expecting a lot from fan favorites Messi, Ronaldo, and Neymar – arguably the current three best players in the world right now. Messi and Ronaldo are the two leading goal scorers in the Champions league with each player scoring over 100 goals in the competition. Fans across the world have their eyes on these remarkable players hoping to watch them carry their team to the trophy.
