Big guns eying progress in the Champions League

The 2019/20 Champions League remains in a state of flux as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause mayhem in sporting circles.

Europe’s top club competition is midway through the round of 16, but it has been suspended by UEFA due to growing concerns over the spread of the virus.

Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig, Paris Saint-German and Atalanta have already progressed to the quarter-finals, while eight more teams are hoping to join them there.

Read on as we look at the outstanding four ties and predict which teams will make it through to the last eight when the competition resumes.

City in pole position against Madrid

The latest football odds by BetEasy rate Manchester City favourites to go on to win this season’s Champions League following their excellent performance against Madrid back in February.

Goals by Gabriel Jesus and Kevin De Bruyne helped City recover from a goal down to seal a fully deserved 2-1 victory in Spain.

City will fancy their chances of completing the job at the Etihad Stadium, although they would be well advised not to underestimate the threat posed by Madrid.

The La Liga outfit have won nine of their last 11 away matches in the Champions League and it would be foolish to write them off in this tie.

Chelsea face mission impossible against Bayern

Chelsea did well to progress to the knockout stage, but their limitations were brutally exposed by Bayern Munich in their first meeting.

The Bundesliga side ruthlessly dismantled Chelsea to secure a 3-0 victory at Stamford Bridge and it would be a major shock if they failed to make it through to the last eight.

Chelsea’s summer transfer embargo has left them playing catch-up with Europe’s elite and they could be on the wrong end of another drubbing in the reverse fixture.

Bayern won all three home games during the group stage and are strongly fancied to add another comfortable victory in this one.

Expectation weighing heavily on Juventus

Juventus haven’t won the Champions League since 1996 and the weight of expectation appears to be lying heavily on them at the moment.

They started well against Lyon but failed to capitalise on their dominance and were made to pay as Lucas Tousart secured an unexpected 1-0 victory for the home side.

Cristiano Ronaldo was particularly wasteful, spurning four good opportunities to get on the scoresheet during the game.

However, Juve are generally strong on their own patch and should be capable of booking their place in the quarter-finals.

Griezmann gives Barca a lifeline

Barcelona looked way short of the quality needed to win the Champions League and were fortunate to be just 1-0 down against Napoli in their first leg of their tie.

However, they improved a little to add a vital away goal as Antoine Griezmann scored from Nelson Semedo’s low cross.

Barca will be without Sergio Busquets for the return fixture after the midfielder picked up his third yellow card in this season’s tournament.

Despite this, Barca haven’t lost at home in the Champions League since 2013 and should be too classy for Napoli in the second leg.