Chelsea welcomes LOSC Lille, Villarreal has to go to Juventus in Turin: On paper, the roles are clearly divided, but today’s Champions League games promise pure excitement. Why? Football writes its own laws – especially in cup games.
With LOSC Lille, Chelsea drew the supposedly “easiest” draw in the round of 16. The French champions are struggling this season – although they have recorded two wins and a draw in their last five games, they suffered a dizzying 5-1 defeat against Paris in front of their own wings, while Lille are only lagging behind in Ligue 1 rank eleven. In the Champions League, however, the French presented themselves better: In Group G they prevailed as group winners, leaving behind FC Salzburg, among others.
The Londoners finished Group H in second place – but are in impressive form. Chelsea FC have won all of their last six competitive games – and they also celebrated winning the FIFA Club World Cup. Since the turn of the year, only Manchester City have lost 1-0.
Although the Spaniards are only in sixth place in their domestic league, things have been going quite well for Villarreal recently: in the last five games, coach Unai Emery’s team has celebrated three wins, against leaders Real Madrid there was a 0-0 draw. Only against CF Elche was there a narrow defeat. The Spaniards finished Group F of the Champions League behind group winners Manchester United.
The Italian record champions Juventus Turin recently stumbled slightly. – Juventus had to settle for a draw against both Atalanta Bergamo and city rivals FC Torino. However, the last defeat was a while ago: in the Supercoppa on January 12 against Inter Milan. The Italians finished the group stage of the Champions League in first place, having only lost points once. However, this defeat was tough – against Chelsea FC there was a bitter 0:4.
