Sports Blog 16/02/2016: Match Preview – UEFA Champions League Last 16 1st Leg, Tuesday 16th February 2016

Whilst there is more than plenty of excitement in the Premier League to satisfy fans, you likely won’t hear anyone complaining about the return of the Champions League this Tuesday, especially those Chelsea fans hoping to salvage something this season.

Almost a year to the day since they met in 2014/15’s last 16 Chelsea faces an unenviable trip to a rampant Paris Saint-Germain at 7.45pm on BT Sport Europe. Still unbeaten under Guus Hiddink Chelsea arguably put in their performance of the season on Saturday, a 5-1 demolition of Newcastle seeing the London club edge ever closer to returning to the top half of the table. Continuing his rehabilitation under the Dutch manager was Diego Costa (at a Super Mega PGM of 13-17 ahead of the trip to France), scoring his 8th goal in Hiddink’s 12 games at the helm.



Tuesday night’s game will, interestingly mark, Hiddink’s first Champions League game in charge of Chelsea since they went out of the 2008/09 competition to Barcelona in the semi-finals. Europe was, during Mourinho’s dying days at the club, a space largely free of the headaches that have plagued the club domestically, and Hiddink will be hoping to continue a season-salvaging run on Tuesday.

However in PSG Chelsea face a side in ludicrously potent form. The French club have played 38 games all competitions this season, and have lost just one (and, amazingly, drawn only 5 times), a slight 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid at the Bernabeu the only red mark on their report card. That means they have won 22 and drawn 4 in Ligue 1, giving them an absurd 24 point lead over 2nd place Monaco, are in the final of the Coupe de la Ligue and are in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France. Of those 38 matches the mighty Zlatan Ibrahimovic, at a Super Mega PGM of42-49, has played 32 times whilst scoring 27 goals, with Edison Cavani (at 28-34) and Angel di Maria (at 19-23) totalling that between them on 14 and 13 goals respectively.

Despite the increasingly confident tone struck by Chelsea at home it looks like Tuesday might burst their Hiddink-bubble, Spreadex offering a relatively conclusive PSG/Chelsea Goal Supremacy spread of 0.85-1.05 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.3-2.5.

Tuesday evening’s other game is arguably the weakest of the entire last 16, as Benfica host Zenit Saint Petersburg at 7.45pm on BT Sport 2. The Portuguese side snuck through one of the competition’s easier groups, finishing 2nd to Atletico Madrid (who they impressively managed to beat 2-1 in Spain) ahead of Galatasaray and Kazakhstan’s Astana. Benfica also remain more than in the running for the Primeira Liga, trailing Sporting CP by a mere 3 points, but with a phenomenal 60 goals scored thanks to combined power of Jonas (on 23 league goals and at a Super Mega PGM of 33-39) and Konstantinos Mitroglou (on 13 league goals and at a Super Mega PGN of 22-27).



Zenit, on the other hand, aren’t dominating the Russian Premier League the way they should, sitting in a lowly 6th place joint on 30 points with Spartak Moscow and Krasnodar (but trailing both on goal difference). They will also perhaps be over-rested when they face Benfica on Tuesday, having not played competitively since their perfect record ending loss to Gent in the Champions League back at the start of December. Artyom Dzyuba (on 16 goals all comps) and the more familiar form of Hulk (on 11 goals) will be the ones to watch, and go into the game at Super Mega PGMs of 15-19 and 16-20 respectively.

Given their divergence in form, and the fact that the Portuguese side are scoring for fun at the moment, Spreadex are offering a Benfica/Zenit Saint Petersburg Goal Supremacy spread of 0.3-0.5 with a Total Goals spread of 2.2-2.4.

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