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UEFA Champions League: Round of 16 preview Madrid

UEFA Champions League: Round of 16 preview Madrid

QNA

The second leg of the round of last 16 in the Champions League will continue for two days and will witness four strong matches between Real Madrid (Spain) vs Atlanta (Italy), Manchester City (England) vs Borussia Monchengladbach (Germany),  Bayern Munich (Germany) vs Lazio (Italy) and Chelsea  (England) vs Atletico Madrid  (Spain). 

In the first match tomorrow, Real Madrid will host  Italians Atalanta in Madrid. Real scored a victory over Atalanta with a clean goal in Italy, giving Real a step forward towards the quarter-finals. Real did not take advantage of Atalanta being one man down during the first leg, and failed to take a big lead, so they will be looking to end it in the second leg tomorrow. 

Real will play tomorrow's match in the absence of defenders Alvaro Odrizola and Danny Carvajal due to injury and without Brazilian Casemiro due to suspension. Sergio Ramos, the captain of the team, will make a comeback. 

On the other hand, Atalanta aspires to qualify for the quarter-finals despite the difficult position and after losing the first leg at home 0-1. Manchester City will face Borussia Moenchengladbach, in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. The first leg saw City beat Moenchengladbach 2-0 in the first leg, making the English side's match tomorrow much easier. In the third match, Atletico Madrid will go head to head against Chelsea in a difficult confrontation for the Spanish league leaders, especially after they lost at home 0-1 in the first leg. Atletico needs to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge if they want to reserve their seat in the quarter-finals of the tournament. 

While Chelsea seeks to continue their winning streak, in the last 12 games, under the leadership of their current German coach Thomas Tuchel, taking Chelsea to fourth place in the English Premier League. 

In the last confrontation the day after tomorrow, Bayern Munich came close to qualifying for the quarter-finals after beating Lazio (4-1) in the first leg. 

While Lazio's chance seems almost impossible to reverse the result in their favor against brilliant Bayern, who currently tops the German league table (Bundesliga) by four points. 

The English teams, Liverpool, Porto, Portugal, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, France reserved their seats in the quarter-finals last week, waiting for the other four seats to be decided through the matches after tomorrow.