The 2024-25 edition of the UEFA Champions League will continue to leave us with historic moments to witness starting this Tuesday, when the newly created playoff stage prior to the Round of 16 takes place for the first time since the tournament was founded.
This additional round not only gives teams an alternative to continue in European competition, but also the option to remain in the top club tournament, unlike what happened in the group stage, where only the two best teams qualified for the next round and others, perhaps on a bad afternoon, did not achieve the expected result and had to watch the tournament from the sidelines, sometimes unfairly.
This preliminary round of the most important club tournament in the world will have some illustrious guests, starting with the two clubs that played in the most recent final of the tournament: Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. Other clubs with quite some history are also involved in this stage of the competition, such as Bayern Munich, Milan, Juventus and Manchester City, to name a few.
Similarly, clubs that in the previous format would not have qualified for this edition of the tournament are present at this stage and could continue to surprise their opponents. These clubs include, to cite a few examples, Brest, Brugge of Belgium and Celtic of Scotland.
Before starting with the in-depth analysis of the playoffs, we believe it is prudent to remember who are the clubs that are immersed in this phase and their respective opponents. These are the first leg matches that will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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UEFA Champions League - Highlights of the knockout stage
- Brest and PSG will stage the first Champions League tie between French League teams since the quarter-final clash between Lyon and Bordeaux in the 2009-10 season.
- Juventus has won 5 of the 8 most recent matches against Dutch opponents.
- Real Madrid has managed to eliminate 13 English La Liga opponents in the Champions League knockout rounds.
- Borussia Dortmund have defeated Sporting Lisbon in 3 of their four meetings in this tournament, but the last match between them ended in a win for the Portuguese in November 2021.
- Belgium's Brugge have failed to beat a team from Italy in UEFA tournaments since October 2003, accumulating 6 draws and 9 defeats since then against Serie A opponents.
- Benfica is unbeaten in 3 Champions League matches against Monaco. Two of them have ended in wins and one in a draw.
- Celtic of Scotland has never been able to beat Bayern after four attempts (three defeats, one draw).
- Milan have failed to beat Dutch opponents in their last four matches.
Forecast
Matches on February 11
PSG is the favorite against Brest. The Parisians have a -275 odds for +675 of the host of Tuesday's match. The draw pays +470.
Sporting is favored over Borussia Dortmund for this game, with +128 for the Portuguese to +205 for last year's runner-up.
Juventus, with -111, jumps as favorite against PSV, which will jump with odds of +330 to win.
Manchester City is the favorite to win the first leg at the Etihad (+111) against Real Madrid (+220). The draw in this case has odds of +295.
Matches on February 12
The matchday starts with Brugge vs Atalanta, where the Italians have odds in their favor of +109 to +265 in favor of the host.
Milan also come out as favorites in their visit to Feyenoord, with the Italians having a line of +119 to +215 for the hosts.
Monaco receives Benfica as a favorite despite the history. The line in favor of the home side is +133, while the visitors have a line in favor of their win of +194.
Finally, Bayern comes out with the highest online odds in their favor with -263, while their hosts, Celtic, will be looking for a historic result with +625 as the odds on their win.
Remember that the lines are dynamic and may change before you place your bet.
