The Champions League round of 16 begins: Manchester City and Real Madrid must confirm themselves as candidates against two accessible rivals

The Champions League round of 16 will begin on Tuesday with the participation of the two major title contenders, Manchester City and Real Madridplaying the first leg in Copenhagen and Leipzig.

The European fixture comes at an excellent time for both the ‘Citizens’ and the Whites and it doesn’t appear that either Copenhagen or RB Leipzig have the ability to eliminate the last two champions, City in 2023 and Real Madrid, from the competition. Madrid a year earlier.

Madrid, with many injuries… and a lot of squad

Despite the plague of injuries that they are suffering this season, especially in defence, the Spanish team has only lost two matches this season, both against Atlético de Madrid (one in LaLiga and another in the Copa del Rey) and last weekend this week they left the scudetto was almost won after beating second-placed Girona 4-0, who now lead with 5 points.

For the duel in Germany, the coach Carlo Ancelotti They will have to deploy a defense of circumstances again, with Dani Carvajal and Aurélien Tchouameni as an improvised axis, given that the team’s four central defenders are injured, as well as goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Even more serious: in the match against Girona, Jude Bellingham sprained his left ankle and he will also not be available, so Real Madrid is left without their top scorer this season (16 goals in La Liga and 4 in the Champions League).

But the white team can count on the great playing time of men like Vinicius Jr, Eduardo Camavinga and Brahim Díaz to dream of moving forward in search of the 15th title in its history.

City Unstoppable: They have won ten of the (last) ten

Pep’s team, for its part, has won the last 10 matches played, including all competitions, and this too He recovered his marker Erling Haaland in timeabsent for several weeks through injury, and who scored both goals in the win over Everton at the weekend.

These good results have catapulted Pep Guardiola’s team to second place in the Premier League table, two points behind leaders Liverpool, although with a game less which could allow them to move back into first place.

In addition to Haaland, the current European champion is the backbone of the team that last season won the first ‘Orejona’ in City’s history, with its constellation of stars (De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Foden, Julián Álvarez, Ruben Dias. ..).

The rest of the qualifiers will be played between Wednesday and next week, in a round of 16 final that will last into the following month.

First leg of the Champions League round of 16

Tuesday 13 February:

5pm (Fox Sports)

Copenhagen-Manchester City

5pm (ESPN)

Leipzig-Real Madrid

Wednesday 14 February:

5pm

Paris Saint-Germain-Real Sociedad

5pm

Lazio-Bayern Munich

Tuesday 20 February

Inter-Atletico

PSV Eindhoven-Borussia Dortmund

Wednesday 21 February

Porto-Arsenal

Naples-Barcelona

Here’s what the return matches of the Champions League round of 16 will look like

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Tuesday 5 March

Real Sociedad – Paris SG

Bayern Munich-Lazio

Wednesday 6 March

Manchester City-Copenhagen

Real Madrid-Leipzig

Tuesday 12 March

Arsenal-Porto

Barcelona-Naples

Wednesday 13 March

Atletico-Inter

Borussia Dortmund-PSV Eindhoven