I know nothing about Lyon, but my gut is that Juventus could have done worse.
I think Liverpool match up well against what I perceive to be a struggling Atletico side.
Looking forward to seeing Chelsea's defense against The Bayern Lewandowskis.
The silver lining to the lack of upsets is that this R16 is more exciting on paper than I can ever remember. Atalanta and Valencia will consider themselves lucky to avoid the megaclubs, and Juve, Spurs, and Barca have to like their chances as well. All the other matchups are delightful and intriguing.
I know nothing about Lyon, but my gut is that Juventus could have done worse.
I think Liverpool match up well against what I perceive to be a struggling Atletico side.
Looking forward to seeing Chelsea's defense against The Bayern Lewandowskis.
I think you may be underrating RB Leipzig a little bit. They have looked pretty strong the few times I have seen them this year.My read (such as it is) Tottenham got a gift.
Regarding a healthy Costa I believe it was the third man on the morning Football Show on XM (I was desparate) who suggested that the most realistic timeframe he had heard for Costa was April not February/March. That said a healthy Diego Costa makes that even more interesting.Liverpool have to be considered the top club in the world at this moment, right? So it’s not great that Atletico drew the best team. As of today, I don’t like Atletico’s chances but two months is a long time and I have faith that Simeone will continue to improve his squad before that match. The biggest questions are if Joao Felix keeps getting better and if Atletico can find another striker — either a healthy Costa or a new signing — before the fixtures.
Sure, but I think he was speaking more in regards to they missed out on matching up with one of the super clubs--Madrid, PSG, Barca, etc. You're not going to get a bad team at this point.I think you may be underrating RB Leipzig a little bit. They have looked pretty strong the few times I have seen them this year.
They currently sit at the top of the Bundesliga table with 33 points in 15 games, including a league-leading +26 goal differential. You could argue that they were far from commanding in a somewhat weak Group G (11 points), but they still came out on top of that.
Understood that all of the teams left are good and Leipzig are not a super-club, it's just that categorizing Spurs as being lucky and Liverpool as facing an "extremely dangerous" opponent (Atletico) seemed a little overstated to me.Sure, but I think he was speaking more in regards to they missed out on matching up with one of the super clubs--Madrid, PSG, Barca, etc. You're not going to get a bad team at this point.
Not that I really disagree with this, but since Atalanta became a bit of a binky team of mine last year, they have been missing their top scorer in Duvan (#2 in all of Serie A last year) for much of the season, are also missing Ilicic, and haven't played a home game until recently as their stadium was under repair. By the time February rolls around, they will be playing actual home games and could have their entertaining three headed monster back (Duvan, Ilicic, and Papu Gomez). They might not still your list of worst teams left (not that it's much of an insult- this round of 16 is stacked).From what I've seen, the weakest teams in the R16 are:
1. Atalanta
2. Lyon
3. Leipzig - domestic results notwithstanding, they just haven't faced this caliber of competition (other than a home draw to Bayern), they won the Group of Life, and Werner seems off to me this year.
Valencia got a dream draw against Atalanta, I doubt they'd be favored against very many others. Tottenham didn't get a pushover in this round - there are no pushovers - but they could have done far worse. I mean, Real Madrid vs Man City? Totally agree this will be an awesome R16.
You're drastically underrating Atleti. Atleti have conceded 10 (!) goals in La Liga this season. They can't put the ball in the net at the moment, but if they can keep their opponent off the score sheet at the Wanda, I like their chances in an away leg. Similar to their matches against Juve, they played Barca very tough and it took some Messi magic at the end to get the result. Otherwise, their only bad result in the group stage was a 2-1 loss to Leverkusen (aka Neverlusen).Understood that all of the teams left are good and Leipzig are not a super-club, it's just that categorizing Spurs as being lucky and Liverpool as facing an "extremely dangerous" opponent (Atletico) seemed a little overstated to me.
Honestly, if Leipzig was matched up against Atletico, I'd probably pick Leipzig.
Out of the non-English teams, I'd take Leipzig over any of the following: Lyon, Valencia, Atalanta, Napoli, Dortmund, Atletico, and maybe Juventus (I think Bundesliga is definitely higher quality than Serie A recently). I'd have them in the vicinity of 8th out of the final 16.
I find it tough to compare across leagues and I am sure I have a bias towards the leagues I watch more of (Premier League and Bundesliga), so maybe I am way off.
Brainfart: Meant Germany NT. Fixed.Timo Werner has never played for Bayern Munich.