Before the Champions League brings the 'quarters', the 'socks' and the final of the competition to Lisbon, Friday and Saturday the games that are missing in the second leg of the round of 16 are played, still in the usual houses clubs. Aside from the heavy handicap Chelsea carry to Munich, the other qualifiers are wide open and the pandemic has affected the contexts surrounding each team when the first leg was played. The greatest example will be Real Madrid, which by no means had the level of play that it will now face Manchester City

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MANCHESTER CITY - REAL MADRID (FIRST LEG: 2-1)

No god would have enough framework to keep it secret and from all of us to hide that Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, every other day, is a juggernaut and fluid football, the most deceptive of all when he puts the opponent to run after a ball that he sees, but which he will not touch, arriving late to the places to see the places where the English have already moved this ball.

The problem, which will not be a problem, but an inevitability - no one, nor ever a group of 11 types, will always be able to reach the best of each one for the team to play in its best version - is that City, this season, went bankrupt more times than usual and so they finished 18 points from champion Liverpool, which he won 4-0 in the first post-hangover game of winning the title, 30 years later, by the guys from the city of The Beatles, but lost with the two other major English teams (Chelsea and Arsenal) who faced after the resumption.

A few months ago, a game of yours trotting and minimally dynamic in the use of the ball could even be enough for Real Madrid, as it was at the Santiago Bernabéu.

But not for this one, the most recent one, the rejuvenated one, who left confinement with another dose of Zinedine Zidane's perlinpimpim powder, the trainer with a touch of who knows what. In this century, there has been no other who has touched the club and managed to hit the feet of so many stars together. Without the ball, the team solidified, Modric recovered his form a few years ago, Benzema affirmed himself, even more, as the attacking game generator as he had never been in 11 seasons at the club, Real surpassed Barcelona and was champion Spanish.

And this Real Madrid is made by them, apart from Ronaldo scoring goals, who won three Champions League in a row, using big games in a very specific way, in which everyone snapped imaginary fingers and subjugated any opponent to a collective level that never has seen itself since 2018. Is it now? What if City is capable of playing at its zenith too? Bring the popcorn, because the only certainty is that there will be no Sergio Ramos on the field, having added the 27th expulsion from his career in the first leg game.

JUVENTUS - LYON (0-1)

If that were the case, just one game, the French who finished in 7th place in Ligue 1 would have a big mess to deal with, since, apart from differences in individual quality and as a team, Lyon's only game since 8 March happened on July 31, when he lost the League Cup final, on penalties, against PSG.

France was the only one among the wealthy championships to suspend the 2019/20 season, without resuming it, leaving those who still had European competitions on the horizon without serious football, with no way to keep pace, without any chance of at least reaching this season. second leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League in equal rhythm, lungs, physical progress and the habit of playing at high rotation.

So, even though he conceived a meal of French haute cuisine months ago, when he beat Juventus at home, Lyon was plotted by the circumstances, even if the Italians, with Ronaldo, Dybala, Pjanic, Douglas Costa and the eternal Buffon, continue playing with pushes, with his Sarrismo so-so, that dazzled anyone during this season until winning the Serie A. Before, they still lost the Cup final and postponed the confirmation of the title by losing at Udinesse, with a very poor display .

BAYERN MUNICH - CHELSEA (3-0 FIRST LEG)

There are those who turn to Frank Lampard with the ubiquity of the numbers and the skillful waist of the comparisons, in order to be turned to the side of whatever the purpose of whoever is comparing: with the English, Chelsea ended the Premier League with fewer points (72-66), fewer goals scored (63-69), more goals conceded (54-39) and one place below (4th) than last season, with Maurizio Sarri. And also, without trophies, unlike the season with the Italian, which ended with the conquest of the Europa League.

Keeping it simple, it would be written that this Chelsea got worse, regressed and stopped evolving, but then we have to look at the field, where a coach, unable to ask the club for signings that he was prevented from doing, set up a a direct, risky, vertiginous football team moving forward and with a small amount (Abraham, Mount, Tomori, James, Gilmour) that, otherwise, might never have been thrown into the competitiveness of the big boys where only they evolve.

Here is Frank Lampard's Chelsea, who is ready to defend in the way he exposes himself, in the loss of the ball, who will face Bayern Munich who is almost an antonym for him. The Germans beat the Bundesliga in full bully mode , back to scoring times and dominators who seemed lost to Niko Kovac, the coach who was replaced in November by Hansi Flick.

It was thought that we were facing an interim, but the German, little by little, put Bayern to play football again dynamic, without jamming and with the best players acting in the best versions of themselves (Lewandowski, Kimmich, Gnabry, Coman, Alaba ). They won 21 of the 23 games made in 2020 (only victories after the resumption) and, a priori, only lose to Chelsea in rhythm, as the competitions in Germany ended in the first week of July, while Lampard's team lost the Cup final. England seven days before facing the Bavarians in the Champions League .

BARCELONA - NEPOLI (1-1)

With Barça as they are, dying of identity, a pale image of the way to play, with the 30 players noticing themselves in the players they could trust the most and agonized by Lionel Messi's so obvious agony - not even he has enough time to mask with genius on the pitch so much that goes wrong out of it - a more balanced game would be expected.

It is true that Barcelona were last seen winning 5-0 against Osasuna, in the last round of the Spanish league, which was of no use, but, especially since the post-confinement resumption, the team has been snailing the pace with which it changed the ball, slowing the reaction even more when he lost it and funneling, more and more, his game to the predictable pass-the-ball-to-Messi.

In between, there was the public self-criticism of the unquestionable Argentine and rumors that Quique Setién, the coach, could leave before this game with Naples, who aligned with the temperamental Gattuso and even won the Italian Cup final against Juventus , in the middle of June, being and playing better than the Italian champion.

But on the last day of Serie A, captain Lorenzo Insigne suffered a muscle injury and wound up the fastest time in Naples, because recovering the short man who is perhaps the most mirrored version of Arjen Robben's addiction - to leave from the outside to the inside and shooting in an arc, to the farthest post -, it will be crucial for how influential it is in the team's attacking game.