The Champions League is back, providing us with a fantastic midweek dose of the best football teams in Europe and arguably the most expensive array of footballers of all time.
All your favourite stars remain as we head into the knockout stages, with the exception of Ariaga II and Manchester United.
Three English Teams remain with Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City representing the EPL, equalling the representation of Spain featuring heavyweight super spenders Real Madrid and Barcelona and their poorer cousin Atletico. However the title of most represented goes to the Bayern Munich League who have Bayern Munich and three others. Ukraine, France, Italy, Switzerland and Portugal all have a team or two in the last 16.
The first knockout round will be staged over 4 of the next 5 weeks to stretch out the interest of the punter. Here’s the line up of games this week.
THIS WEEK
Tuesday Night/Wed Morning
PSG v CHELSEA – SBS TV for Australian viewers
SHAKHTAR DONETSK v BAYERN MUNICH
Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning
FC BASEL v PORTO
SCHALKE v REAL MADRID – SBS TV for Australian viewers
NEXT WEEK
Tuesday Night/Wed Morning
MAN CITY v BARCELONA – likely for SBS TV for Australian viewers
JUVENTUS v BORUSSIA DORTMUND
Wednesday Night/Thursday Morning
ARSNEAL v MONACO
BAYER LEVERKUSEN v ATL MADRID
WEEK 1 MULTI – $18
DRAW – PSG v CHELSEA
DRAW – BASEL v PORTO
BAYERN MUNICH to beat SH. DONETSK
REAL MADRID to beat SCHALKE
WEEK 2 MULTI – $26
BARCELONA to beat MAN CITY
DRAW – Juventus v Dortmund
ARSENAL to beat Monaco
AT MADRID to beat Leverkusen
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Not to forget the Garfunkel of European Football – The Europa League.
Sure it is still successful in it’s own right, and it has some golden times, if one is honest it doesn’t excite as much as it’s Paul Simon equivalent – The Champions League. Most of the teams involed have either missed Qualification to or have been not quite good enough to make the knockout stages of the Champions League. Others appears just happy to make it, given their league’s coefficient, their team’s current form or resources.
As ever, less attention bordering on ignorance will not stop us deciding that we’ll have a go at tipping a plethora of winner.
So here’s the fixture list, followed by plenty of multi goodness.
| Aalborg BK | v | Club Brugge |
| BSC Young Boys | v | Everton |
| Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | v | Olympiakos |
| PSV | v | Zenit St P |
| Roma | v | Feyenoord |
| Torino | v | Ath Bilbao |
| Trabzonspor | v | Napoli |
| Wolfsburg | v | Sporting |
| Ajax | v | Legia Warsaw |
| Celtic | v | Inter Milan |
| Guingamp | v | Dynamo Kiev |
| Liverpool | v | Besiktas |
| Anderlecht | v | Dinamo Moscow |
| Sevilla | v | Borussia Mönchengladbach |
| Tottenham | v | Fiorentina |
| Villarreal | v | FC Red Bull Salzburg |
MULTI pays $143.
SPURS to beat Fiorentina
LIVERPOOL to beat Besiktas
OLYMPIAKOS to beat Dnipro
AJAX to beat Legia Warsaw
WOLFSBURG to beat Sporting
GUINGAMP to beat Dynamo Kyiv
CLUB BRUGGE to beat A Aalborg
