The Champions League and Europa League knockout stages commence tomorrow. This, in the view of most footy fans, is the best time of the year. Spring is just around the bend, and great football awaits us.
PSG vs. Chelsea
Credit: NBC Live Extra Stream
PSG will be without the services of 4 players for certain, and will also be sweating over the fitness of Motta, Pastore and Matuidi, when they welcome Chelsea to the Parc des Princes. Jose Mourinho’s side is perfectly fit and stroll into the French capital knowing not only are they clearly the better side this time around, but wanting to make a statement. They usually play for the draw, but not this time. Diego Costa, fresh off a 2 week vacation, will be back to his merciless ways. Expect Chelsea to grab this tie by the throat and take the lead back to Stamford Bridge.
Pick: Chelsea (+190)
Schalke 04 vs. Real Madrid
Do you remember Di Matteo as Chelsea’s boss? After he won the Champions League, he came out the next season and played the type wide open, high scoring football that Roman always wanted. It worked at first but the lack of defensive accountability got him sacked very quickly.
More from Champions League
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- Why you can’t count out Chelsea in the UCL against Real Madrid just yet
- Real Madrid 2-0 Chelsea: 3 Positives and 3 negatives
- Real Madrid 2-0 Chelsea: 3 lessons learned in UCL quarterfinal loss
He now manages Schalke 04, and just this season in the competition Schalke has played kamikaze football against Sporting Lisbon and Chelsea to whom they lost 5-0. Madrid always look to run up the score in Germany – they scored 9 goals in this tie last year, with 6 of them coming at the Stadion Gelsenkirchen
Pick: over 3.5 goals (+120)
Tottenham vs. Fiorentina
Mauricio Pochettino has said on multiple occasions this season that the Spurs intend to win the Europa League. But he has a double leg against la Viola at the worst possible time. This week they play at White Hart Lane, and next Thursday must travel to Florence only 3 days before the Capital One Cup final. Tottenham would like that fixture to be as stress free as possible. They need to win this week so they consider resting 1 or 2 stars before March 1st.
Pick: Tottenham (+120)
Last Matchday’s record: 0-3 (-3 units)
Overall: 30-27 (8.1 units)