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The moods of Messi and Ronaldo must have been different after knowing the draw for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
The group stage of the Champions League is over and from next year we will be spoiled by the best European teams that will fight to the full in the round of 16.
As usual, the draw has always featured tough duels and this season we will see a heavyweight battle between Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, while Chelsea and Liverpool have to face Atlético de Madrid and RB Leipzig.
But who are the happiest teams in the draw? Who doesn’t need to worry about their opponent to go to the next round?
Check out the winners and losers of the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League.
Winner: Cristiano Ronaldo
As the only team left that is not in the top five leagues in Europe, Porto will be happy with their achievements.
And also Cristiano Ronaldo, who will return to his hometown with Juventus.
It has been 11 years since Ronaldo last played Porto, when the star miraculously helped Manchester United qualify for the Champions League semi-finals.
At the time, Ronaldo failed to triumph in Europe with the Red Devils, but so far he has collected five of these prestigious trophies and now travels to Turin to help Juventus end a 25-year wait for the Big Ear.
Ronaldo could have done better than the previous two seasons with Juventus, but he is the only Juventus player to have scored in six group stage games since 2019 and he certainly hopes to get more help from his teammates to achieve better. results. .
Ronaldo started the season brilliantly, scoring 17 goals in 17 appearances, including a double against Barcelona at Camp Nou, which ensured the Bianconeri were leaders of the group. The record is likely to rise when Juve take on Porto, despite the Portuguese team having managed to keep a clean sheet in their last five European matches.
Loser: Chelsea
Of all the non-seeded teams in the draw, Atlético de Madrid is the team that most wants to be avoided and it is quite natural to say that Chelsea are unlucky enough to have faced Los Rojiblancos.
Diego Simeone’s troops are known to be difficult to beat in both matches of the match, proof of this is that Liverpool were his victims last season.
The advance of Atleti in the League is no less wild. If they had won both games in hand, this team would have won LaLiga with a six-point advantage.
While Chelsea have also achieved impressive results, players like Luis Suárez, Joao Félix and Diego Costa are serious obstacles to Frank Lampard’s polished youth squad.
Winner: Pep Guardiola
After signing a two-year extension of his contract with Manchester City, Pep Guardiola now has three more chances to end the club’s wait for the Champions League.
He’s definitely waiting for a draw like Borussia Monchengladbach, which is seen by most as one of the weakest teams in the seeded pot.
Surprisingly, the Bundesliga team escaped from the group populated by Real Madrid and Inter Milan and, despite failing to win in all four meetings with the European giants, continued thanks to a massive victory over Shakhtar Donetsk.
With Mönchengladbach’s status now in eighth place in the Bundesliga, Man City are clearly the favorites to enter the last eight.
Loser: Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi is a figure who has always been portrayed as suffering at the Camp Nou in the last six months and the superstar’s spirits will only have deteriorated after learning of the draw.
Barcelona did not manage to be the first of the group due to the defeat in the last game against Juventus and then they have to face the French giant Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG are generally slow in Europe, but the team’s success in reaching the final last season is sure to boost confidence.
Neymar may find it difficult to get into shape in time to face Barcelona due to injury, but Thomas Tuchel’s men are believed to have better qualities to advance to the quarter-finals.
It has been six years since Messi won the Champions League, and if he is allowed to speak honestly, his best chance of dominating Europe again is a move to Barça in January.
Winner: Real Madrid
Three victories in an important week is proof that Real Madrid has once again found the best touch.
The victory over Gladbach in the club’s last game allowed them to qualify for the round of 16 and the result of other games made the giants of the Spanish capital the king of the group.
Back-to-back league victories over Sevilla and Atlético de Madrid have also put Real Madrid on the road to victory.
Madrid paired with Atalanta in the round of 16, this Italian team was one of the surprise teams in last season’s Champions League by qualifying for the quarter-finals.
However, recent developments have shown a commotion between Gian Piero Gasperini and various players, threatening his progress in Serie A.
Meanwhile Zidane has a great record in Europe, he won the Champions League three times in a row in four attempts, however the French coach does not run out of duties because the whites have a record of not winning in the last five eliminatory games at home, something which is mandatory. corrected.
Loser: Jurgen Klopp
Injuries have devastated Liverpool’s season and Jurgen Klopp’s hopes of finding an easier opponent in Europe have not materialized.
RB Leipzig are tough opponents, Julian Nagelsmann’s men are on their way to winning the Bundesliga and have managed to escape the group stage which is inhabited by strong teams like PSG and Manchester United.
Last season, Leipzig played a daring match by beating Tottenham Hotspur and Atlético de Madrid to qualify for the semi-finals.
Nagelsmann has rejoined Klopp’s Liverpool in Europe, when Liverpool easily beat Hoffenheim in qualifying, although the manager has every reason to be more optimistic about Leipzig’s youth squad.
