UEFA Champions League bracket predictions, picking every knockout round match: Can anybody stop Real Madrid?

The road to Munich has been set. The 16 teams that were still in the Champions League were signed on Friday, the 29 games that still play in the competition that promises all kinds of drama before the new champions of Europe are crowned. With the path of each team to the final that is now set, what is a better time to take our best gamble about who will be in the final on 31 May? Let’s go into it.

Round of 16

Confirmed ties

• Paris Saint-Germain vs. Liverpool
• Club Brugge vs. Aston Villa
• Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid
• PSV vs. Arsenal
• Feyenoord vs. Intercourse
• Bavaria Munich vs. Bayer Leverkusen
• Borussia Dortmund vs. Lille
• Benfica vs. Barcelona

Let’s start cleaning up which look the obvious corpses. Club Brugge is simply aimed at atalanta, but somehow arose as a victor. Unless they have found a way to make every shot a goal, you must assume that Aston Villa will see them.

Similarly Arsenal, no matter how she bumped in attack, PSV blended in last season’s group stage. As long as their defense persists, it will be fine. The same applies to Inter against Feyenoord. Benfica apparently has the quality to completely push Barcelona, ​​but Hansi Flick will certainly learn the lessons from his side 5-4 victory in the Estadio Da Luz, for example, that Wojciech Szczesny does not ask to cover as much space as a sweeper.

Based on their meetings this season you would suspect that there is nothing to separate Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. However, there is a tendency to freeze when they see The whites On the European stage. That may not be necessary. The men of Carlo Ancelotti are really completed in the form of lately. They should get it done.

That leaves three games that are a bit tighter to call. Borussia Dortmund and Lille are the least sexy of that, the European experience of the former counts, but Lille has probably been the better team this season. As far as the big boys are concerned, in form there is a mandatory matter that PSG is able to eliminate Liverpool. The ideal version of this draw is a true Ousmane Dembele and Mohamed Salah to prove the best attacker in the world. If that happens, trust that the Differencesmakers about the draw may just be the defenders of Liverpool.

The draw of De Ronde is probably played in Germany. Bayern Munich has the superior attack, but Xabi Alonso found a way to suppress that in their last matchup, with Harry Kane et al to just two shots. So often in the Champions League it comes down to a matter of whose defense you trust. That will undoubtedly be Leverkusen. Mark them as dark horses for a deep run.

Quarter -finalists: Liverpool, Aston Villa, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Inter, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille, Barcelona

Quarterfinals

Predictable tires

• Liverpool vs. Aston Villa
• Real Madrid vs. Arsenal
• Barcelona vs. Lille
• Inter vs. Bayer Leverkusen

You would be afraid of the worst of Lille against Barcelona, ​​for all crime of Dogues Against Real Madrid and Liverpool this would certainly be a step too far. The other unbalanced tie seems Liverpool vs. To be aston villa. Since the highlight of the raadness of the Lockdown-Ball-De 7-2 victory in Villa Park-Is it all Liverpool in this matchup with a record of six wins and three draws. In those competitions they scored 19 and admitted nine, so that the competitions in XG terms with an average of 0.89 were relaxed.

Arsenal’s journey to the Santiago Bernabeu would be rich in story, especially for Thierry Henry and, unfortunately for the Emirates Stadium Faithful, William Saliba. You can already see how he has two exceptional games to make the Madrid Press Dizzy and it’s really not enough. If a defense of Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo, Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe’s can delay, they are Arsenal’s. The problem is at a certain moment during the 180 minutes that they have to surpass the FAB Four. Unless Bukayo Saka returns and is immediately his old self And Gabriel Martinelli returns his 2021-22 himself, it is difficult to see that happening.

Inter and Bayer Leverkusen played each other quite well in the competition phase – at least until the last moment Neverlusen -Dingen – but the Serie A opportunities are another team to not get a real joy out of that backline. Alonso really seems to have a team that has been tailor -made for the Champions League. They hoist possession, they don’t give anything on the other side (except on that weird night against Liverpool) and they can get a moment or two geniuses from their attackers. This will also be relevant for the semi -final.

Semi -finalists: Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Bayer Leverkusen

Semi -final

Predictable tires

• Liverpool vs. Real Madrid
• Barcelona vs. Bayer Leverkusen

Now this is the good stuff. At the moment Liverpool seems to be the best team in Europe, and at the offset it is worth mentioning that they were enormously superior when they met Real Madrid in November. However, the process of these two teams now looks quite different and comes in the spring, this should be really too close to call. In such cases it is rarely a bad idea to just choose Madrid, but it is worth offering a little more ballast to the vibes.

If this game were to be played now, Liverpool would have the feeling that they had the best attacker on the field, but what happens if Salah is injured or not even the clear balloon d’Or copy? If something happened to one of Madrid’s Front Four, you would feel that they could endure the storm. After all, this team has just won the Champions League without Mbappe.

That means that the Clasico final is switched on. I would like to offer that. I would really do it. It is only you and I know that Alonso’s playing style works very well against the transitional heavy, all energy style that Flick has implemented in Barcelona. We know that a defense on elite level is well rewarded in the Champions League. We know that Bayer Leverkusen has that thing that they do in the 90th minute.

Finalists: Real Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen

Final

Anyway, this final is quite full of talk points. A repeat of 2002 means that you are unable to escape from that Zinedine Zidane volley. Xabi Alonso meets the team that he may be able to manage in the near future. Two teams that have no knowledge of when they are defeated, this would be a thriller.

And yet would Madrid certainly look like the obvious winners? There is a risk to index their excellence against the Post-Prime Manchester City in the last fourteen days, but there is no longer known raw material in large European finals than Real Madrid. There would be no player at that pitch who knows what it is like to see the team in White losing this game. Madrid knows how to win the biggest games and this group of players already has a taste of it. When they get that far, it’s hard to see what stops them.

Winner: Real Madrid