The final eight of the Europe's elite remain and continue to kick in the UEFA Champions League. Defending champions, Barcelona, are accompanied by two other Spanish teams Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. Italy have no representation in these final rounds while Manchester City are the sole English participants.
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Germany have two in Bayern Munich and VFL Wolfsburg. France and Portugal have one each in Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica respectively. Having entered these final rounds, the geographical aspects that used to divide teams – no two teams from the same country can play each other – no longer comes into effect and its because of this, we kick the evening off with a mouth-watering clash between Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
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Having introduced and mentioned the teams who still stand a chance to claim the UEFA Champions League, let's dive into the predictions and see who can progress to the semi-finals of Europe's top footballing competition.
#4 Bayern Munich vs Benfica
While many might assume that this game is heavily one-sided, the reason Benfica are here is because they are able to compete with the best. Bayern Munich's manager, Pep Guardiola, acknowledged their presence in these final rounds by claiming they can beat the best on their day.
Bayern Munich, on the other hand, are out on a mission to win the UEFA Champions League once again. While Guardiola en route to winning the Bundesliga all the three years he's been in charge of the club, the lack of the Champions League trophy will leave a stain on his time here given he won the coveted trophy twice with former club, Barcelona.
Coming the squads, Benfica have a bunch of underrated stars who work well as a team. Renato Sanchez, a midfield general, has been mghtily impressive for the Portuguese side that he's been tipped to join Manchester United in the coming window. Elsewhere, the pace and guile of Eduardo Salvio and Nicolas Gaitan seem to cause every defence they've played this season a massive nuisance. With the likes of Konstantinos Mitroglou and Raul Jimenez to tuck away chances, they have every chance to bother the Bayern defence.
Bayern's squad meanwhile is probably one the best in the world behind Barcelona alone. Thomas Muller, Robert Lewandowski, Thiago Alcantara and Douglas Costa have been revelations this season eclipsing every other season. The best aspect of this Bayern squad is the fact that they gel extremely well as a team.
And that, according to me, gives them the chance to end Benfica's excellent run in the Champions League.
Prediction: (On final aggregate) 5-1 to Bayern Munich.
#3 Wolfsburg vs Real Madrid
Real Madrid are fresh off their incredible performance beating Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Following their less than impressive start to the season under Rafael Benitez, the Los Blancos seemed to have turned things around for the better with Zinedine Zidane at the helm.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema have been in fine form since the Frenchman has taken over and overall, the squad look like a more confident side and ready to at least win the Champions League given they're 7 points behind Barcelona in the Liga.
Wolfsburg – much like Real Madrid – are having an off season. They finished second last season but are 34 points behind league leaders Bayern Munich this time around. The sale of Kevin de Bruyne to Manchester City seems to have taken a massive toll on the team yet they seem to consistently perform in the Champions League.
The key player for the Germans will be Julian Draxler who has had a decent season with the club. His recent performance for Germany against Italy was breathtaking and he'll be looking to take that form into the Champions League. At Madrid, Ronaldo and Bale were a class apart in the El Clasico and could do similar damage to the defence this time around as well.
Prediction: (On final aggregate) 4-3 to Real Madrid.
#2 Paris Saint-Germain vs Manchester City
The Parisians won the Ligue 1 title in record time thanks to the efforts of charismatic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and captain fantastic, Thiago Silva yet they now face their most daunting task of the season – the final few rounds of the Champions League.
Paris Saint-Germain haven't been a force to reckon with in the Champions League these past seasons but this time around have a squad capable of taking the fight to the best of teams. With the addition of Angel di Maria, Laurent Blanc's men finally have a player capable of playing in the hole comfortably. Edison Cavani, Lucas Moura and Blaise Matuidi have been splendid for the club this season and will look to punish the rather weak defending Manchester City have put up.
Speaking of the Citizens, currently fourth on the Premier League table, City have also had a poor season given plenty of their players have been injured at some point or the other. Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Kevin de Bruyne have all been injured for long spells but now that they're back, are capable of properly challenging the Parisians in the hunt for the most prestigious European trophy.
While City have the ability to score goals, the Parisian defence has been sublime this season and their counter-attacking pace is almost frightening giving them the upper hand in this fixture.
Prediction: (On final aggregate) 5-3 to Paris Saint-Germain.
#1 Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid
Easily the most challenging game of the lot. Barcelona have struggled to beat Atletico Madrid with ease and Diego Simeone's men have the knack of upsetting the best of opposition on their day. Barcelona, meanwhile, having lost to Real Madrid on the weekend will look to bounce back and get their winning streak restarted.
Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez were poor against Real Madrid but have been spectacular against every other team this season irrespective of competition. Against Atletico Madrid, they'll come across one of the most compact teams. Simeone's obsession of playing a compact line of defenders close to the midfield leave little or no space between the lines – the kind of space Andres Iniesta and Messi enjoy exploiting.
With Diego Godin also back for the Atleti, Barcelona's chances of progression just got a lot tougher. However, they always seem to find a way to exploit the smallest of lapses and the Madrid team have a problem of not getting back into shape fast enough. With the likes of Neymar and Luis Suarez, Barcelona have the opportunity to really taken advantage of the chaos.
Either way, this game will be a close one. The two of them are competing with each other in the Liga as well and this Champions League fixture will only further add fuel to the fire in their rivalry given how much the Catalans are trying to be the first team to successfully defend the title.
Prediction: (On final aggregate) 3-2 to Barcelona.
