High-profile rematches top the bill

The UEFA Champions League resumes this week with the first four Round of 16 ties getting under way. Two of them are rematches from last season, with Schalke entertaining defending champions Real Madrid again and Paris Saint-Germain welcoming Chelsea, the team who knocked them out in last year’s quarter-finals. Elsewhere, Shakhtar Donetsk receive a visit from Bayern Munich and Basel play host to Porto.

The continental elite are very well represented in the final stages of this season’s competition. No fewer than 13 of the top 16 clubs in the UEFA ranking have won through to the last 16, with the only absentees being Benfica, Manchester United and Valencia. The three sides replacing them are Basel, Juventus and AS Monaco, who are respectively ranked 17th, 21st and 74th.

Reigning world champions Germany are the only country to have all four of their representatives still in the running (Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke), the same quartet that flew the flag for the nation last year. They are followed by Spain and England with three clubs apiece, France with two and Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Ukraine with one each.
This week’s fixtures

Tuesday 17 February 
Paris Saint-Germain-Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk-Bayern Munich

Wednesday 18 February 
Basel-Porto
Schalke-Real Madrid

Fifa.com              

Maher Taki