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The UEFA Champions League has finally arrived at the Round of 16 after completing the first-ever Knockout Phase Playoffs. There were plenty of storylines from this new set of matches, as Real Madrid ousted the 2022-23 champions, Manchester City. However, this wasn’t the only story, as there were a few upsets, including PSV Eindhoven knocking out Juventus, Club Brugge outlasting Atalanta, and Feyenoord taking down AC Milan.
It’s safe to say that Italian clubs didn’t have a fun time, but Inter Milan is the lone survivor, so let’s get into today’s UEFA Champions League picks.
As I said, Italian clubs didn’t do well in the latest round, but here is a complete list of the scorelines from the Knockout Phase Playoffs after two legs:
As you can see, four of the eight matchups were decided by a single goal, and PSV vs Juventus required extra time in the second leg. Additionally, PSG absolutely dominated fellow Ligue 1 side Brest, but things won’t be as easy against the #1 overall seed Liverpool.
Here are the four games on today’s schedule:
Wednesday, March 5
Today’s games begin at 12:45 PM ET, as Inter Milan travels to take on Feyenoord. The Italian side will likely advance to the quarterfinals, but this match won’t be easy. Feyenoord is the lone team to take down Liverpool in this Champions League campaign, so I expect Inter to take a cautious approach today.
The next three games are highlighted by Liverpool traveling to the Parc des Princes for a thrilling matchup against PSG, but Bayern Munich hosting Leverkusen is just as exciting. Finally, Barcelona will travel west to take on the Portuguese side, Benfica, in a rematch from the group stage, where the Catalan Giants won 5-4 dramatically.
When looking at these four games, I expect plenty of goals in Paris and Lisbon. Arne Slot’s Liverpool side have been a joy to watch this season, and they had a week to rest for this matchup since they were eliminated from the FA Cup and didn’t play this weekend. Therefore, I expect the Reds will put out their best lineup in hopes of bringing a positive result back to Liverpool. However, PSG has been elite at home this season, and they’ve been scoring in bunches.
The hosts have 4+ goals in four of their last five games, and no one has been hotter than Ousmane Dembélé, who has found the back of the net in three straight games. The winger has 6 goals in 7 starts in the Champions League, and I expect him to make that 7 in 8 today. Therefore, I’ll pick him to find the back of the net in Paris, but I also have my eyes set on one of Barcelona’s players.
Robert Lewandowski leads Barcelona with 9 goals in 8 starts this year, and he’s shown no signs of slowing down. The Polish striker has scored in five of Barcelona’s last six games and found the back of the net twice when they faced Benfica in the group stage. I anticipate another strong performance from Lewandowski and will back him to score today.
Luke Lindholm is an avid basketball, baseball, football, hockey and soccer fan who specializes in writing promotional content for multiple sportsbooks and prediction-based articles across a variety of sports. His work has been featured on prominent websites including Sports Illustrated, Pickswise, Men’s Journal, TheStreet, Athlon Sports and more. He started as a college football handicapper for Pickswise in 2016 and is a current member of the Pickswise NFL handicapping team.