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The anticipated matchups for today’s Champions League will most certainly be Barcelona vs Benfica and Liverpool vs PSG, as both Barcelona and Liverpool are defending a 1-0 lead at their respective home stadiums against goal-hungry opponents. We already asked AI for a Champions League prediction, but here’s my take on how these games will play out!
It’s do or die in the second leg of the Round of 16, and any teams that fail to survive are out of the 2025 UEFA Champions League, so feel free to go with our suggestions for today’s set of matches between 4 of the top teams in the Spanish, English, Portuguese and French League!
FC Barcelona are on a hot streak, taking back 1st place in the Spanish La Liga. However, they haven’t played a game since last facing Benfica due to their 1st team doctor passing away minutes before last Saturday’s kickoff against Osasuna. While it’s an unfortunate and unexpected event to happen to the team’s inner family, we expect Barcelona to show up full of fire and passion at home.
Barca’s Raphinha has been a spectacularly clutch player, posting 9 goals in the Champions League campaign after scoring the game-winner in the 1st leg against Benfica. Paired with youngster Lamine Yamal to apply pressure on the wings, this team should have no problem creating offensive chances, especially with experienced legend Robert Lewandowski at the helm with another 9 Champions League goals ready to put some in the back of the net. While we fully expect Lewandowski to score at least 1 in this game, Ronald Aroujo will have to step up and take suspended player Pau Cubarsi’s place at the center-back position this game, which shouldn’t pose any unexpected problems.
Not long after their first leg match against Barcelona, Benfica would complete a convincing 3-0 domination over Nacional in Liga Portugal last Saturday, with goals from Amdouni and two penalties, one from Kokcu in the 23’ and another from Pavlidi in the 90+2’. In their previous five league matches, they boast five straight wins and are sitting under 1st place Sporting Lisbon with a game in hand.
While Benfica would fall to Barcelona 1-0 in the first leg of UCL, there’s still a slight chance that a goal early in this game will level the playing field. Benfica’s Vangelis Pavlidis is not to be counted out, as he’s posted a cool 7 goals so far in this campaign, along with Akturkoglu and Kukcu netting 4 goals a piece. If one thing is for sure, it’s that you can’t count out Benfica offensively, and they are most certainly in form, so unless Barca’s Wojciech Szczesny can make the same incredible stops like last time, Benfica may find the back of the net.
Similar to the Barcelona vs Benfica situation, Liverpool will take home a 1-0 lead against a threatening PSG squad. Liverpool collected another convincing 3 points in their Premier League matchup against Southampton on the weekend that ended 3-1 in favor of the Reds, with an equalizer from Darwin Nunez and two more from Mohamed Salah to take the win. While Liverpool outshot their opponents 28 to 6 in this domestic league match, their previous Champions League game against PSG saw them with 2 shots (1 goal) to PSG’s 27 shots.
If anything is true from this last match, it’s Liverpool’s counterattack is deadly, so you can’t count them out of the game even with only 29% of possession. Salah and Luis Diaz boast 3 goals a piece in the UCL, although Salah has been one of the top assisters in the Champions League with 4 so far. It will be difficult without several impactful players though, Cody Gakpo being of tentative play status, while Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez are both sitting out with hamstring injuries. Even so, we expect Salah to continue his scoring streak in this one with at least 1 goal to hopefully bring home the win.
PSG will most likely carry over their livid emotions from the last game into this one, as they’d put up 71% possession and 27 shots against the Reds only to be defeated by a slim margin. Ligue 1’s top giant is also in-form, with five wins in their last five games domestically. This past weekend, PSG destroyed Renne 4-1 with 2 goals from Ousmane Dembele in the 90+’. PSG’s offense has been immaculate so far this year, and they lead the French League by a whopping 16 points.
Vitinha has been crucial for the team’s midfield this season, although 3 players, including Hakimi, Barcola and Fabian Ruiz have a combined 11 assists, along with Ousmane Dembele’s 6 goals. If Liverpool doesn’t keep their shape at the back throughout the game, a simple mistake could lead to a potential comeback from the French League leaders.
Today’s matches will determine who moves on to the next round, and although both games will be extremely competitive, we have the utmost faith in both Barcelona and Liverpool. Both teams have decades of dominant experience in the UEFA tournament and even without that, their goal-scoring threats with players like Raphinha (Barca), Lamine Yamal (Barca), Robert Lewandowski (Barca), Luis Diaz (Liverpool), Darwin Nunez (Liverpool) and Mo Salah (Liverpool) are so threatening that it almost doesn’t matter how many goals either side of Barcelona or Liverpool let up throughout their games.
Both teams have 90+’ late-game scoring capability and have even preserved through games where they are out-possessed and out-shot, so we fully expect Barcelona and Liverpool to come out with their respective wins and move on to the quarter-finals.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.