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Champions League Last 16: What the stats say

football07 August 2020 09:04
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Juventus – Lyon
7 August 2020

Juventus are unbeaten in their two home European games against Lyon (W1 D1), winning 2-1 in the Europa League in April 2014 and drawing 1-1 in the Champions League in November 2016.

Lyon have lost four of their last five away Uefa European matches in Italy (D1 L4) since winning 2-1 at Fiorentina in the Champions League in November 2008.

Juventus have lost two of their last three home Champions League knockout games (W1), losing to Real Madrid in April 2018 and Ajax in April 2019.

In the knockout stage, Lyon are winless in their last 10 away games (D2 L8), failing to score in six of those games. Their last away knockout win was in February 2006 against PSV.

After losing the first leg of a Champions League knockout match, Juventus have progressed from five of their 11 previous ties, including the most recent occasion it occurred against Atlético Madrid in the Last 16 last season (0-2 first leg, 3-0 second leg).

Lyon have lost in the second leg of nine of their last 10 Champions League knockout ties (D1 L9), scoring just five goals and conceding 25 across those 10 games.

Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 18 goals in his last 12 home Champions League knockout matches, with this run including four hat-tricks, including one in the second leg of last season’s Last 16 match with Atlético Madrid.

Lyon’s 1-0 win in the first leg was only Rudi Garcia’s sixth win in 29 Champions League matches (W6 D9 L14) – among the previous 54 managers to manage 30+ games, only two have won six or fewer in their first 30 games: Walter Smith (5) and Dusan Bajevic (6).

Juventus manager Maurizio Sarri suffered his first Uefa European defeat in 23 matches in their first leg defeat to Lyon, ending a run of 22 games without defeat. He hasn’t lost at home in European competition since February 2018 when his Napoli side lost 3-1 to RB Leipzig in the Europa League and is 10 games unbeaten at home (W9 D1).

Since the start of last season only Memphis Depay (10) has been involved in more Champions League goals for Lyon than 22-year old Houssem Aouar (7 – 1 goals and 6 assists); indeed, the Frenchman has as many assists as Lionel Messi in the competition during this period (6).

Manchester City – Real Madrid
7 August 2020

This is the third Champions League meeting between Manchester City and Real Madrid at the Etihad; the previous two ended as draws (1-1 in 2012-13 group stage, 0-0 in 2015-16 semifinal first leg).

Real Madrid have won five of their 11 away Champions League games in England (W5 D3 L3), beating four different teams (Man Utd, Leeds United, Liverpool and Spurs). The only two teams to win away at five different English teams in the Champions League are Bayern Munich (5) and Barcelona (7).

In major Uefa European competition, Manchester City have progressed from all seven of their previous knockout ties when winning the first leg away from home.

Real Madrid are looking to overturn a first-leg deficit in a Champions League knockout tie for the first time since the 2015-16 quarterfinal against Wolfsburg, progressing from that tie (0-2 first leg, 3-0 second leg). They have never overturned a deficit after losing the first leg at home in four previous instances.

Man City manager Pep Guardiola has won 28 Champions League knockout matches, more than any other manager in the competition’s history. Guardiola is looking to become the third manager to eliminate Real Madrid in the knockout stage more than once, along with Marcello Lippi (1995-96, 2002-03) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (2000-01, 2006-07).

Zinedine Zidane could be eliminated from a Champions League knockout tie for the first time, having been victorious in the previous 12. Zidane has won just two of his six Champions League games against English teams (33%).

Pep Guardiola’s five home Champions League knockout matches as Manchester City manager (W3 L2) have produced 28 goals (18 scored, 10 conceded), with their three wins in this sequence coming via 5-3 (vs Monaco), 7-0 (vs FC Schalke 04) and 4-3 (vs Spurs) victories, producing 22 goals in total.

Real Madrid have won their last four away Champions League knockout matches since losing 2-1 to Atlético Madrid in the second leg of the 2016-17 semifinal.

Man City striker Gabriel Jesus has been directly involved in 14 goals in 16 Champions League starts (12 goals, 2 assists), finding the net in three of his four starts in the knockout stages.

Should they be eliminated, it would be the first time since a run of six seasons between 2004-05 and 2009-10 that Real Madrid haven’t reached at least the Champions League quarterfinals in consecutive seasons, having gone out in the Last 16 in 2018-19.

In the first leg, Real Madrid had just nine shots against Manchester City, only attempting fewer in one previous Champions League game under Zinedine Zidane (seven vs Bayern Munich in April 2018).

Barcelona – Napoli
8 August 2020

Barcelona are set to host Napoli for the first time in a competitive match. The last team to win their first away Champions League game at Camp Nou was Rubin Kazan in October 2009 (2-1).

Napoli’s two previous away Champions League knockout matches have ended in defeat, losing 1-4 to Chelsea in March 2012 and 1-3 to Real Madrid in February 2017.

Barcelona have progressed from each of their last 19 Champions League knockout ties after avoiding defeat in the first leg away from home, only failing to progress once, going out to Juventus in the 2002-03 quarterfinal (1-1 first leg, 1-2 second leg).

Napoli have won just one of their last 10 away Champions League games (D4 L5), winning 3-2 at Red Bull Salzburg in October 2019. However, they are unbeaten in all three away games this season (W1 D2).

Barcelona’s run of 35 home Champions League games without defeat (W31 D4) is the second-longest in the history of the European Cup/Champions League, behind Bayern Munich’s 43-game run between 1969 and 1991.

Napoli’s Dries Mertens has scored six Champions League goals this season, one shy of the record for goals in a single season in Uefa competition for the club; both Edinson Cavani (2012-13 Europa League) and Gonzalo Higuain (2014-15 Europa League) scored seven each.

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi has been directly involved in 11 goals in his last five home Champions League knockout matches at Camp Nou (8 goals, 3 assists), scoring a brace in four of those five games.

Napoli have failed to progress from nine of their last 10 Uefa European knockout ties when failing to win the first leg, last progressing in 2013-14 against Swansea City in the Europa League last 32 (0-0 first leg, 3-1 second leg).

This is Quique Setién’s first home Champions League match as Barcelona manager – 10 of their previous 11 managers have won their first such match at Camp Nou, with only Louis van Gaal failing to do so in a 2-2 draw against PSV in October 1997.

Barcelona have qualified for the Champions League quarterfinal in each of the last 12 campaigns, last failing in 2006-07 under Frank Rijkaard; no other team has qualified for the last-eight of the competition in more than eight consecutive seasons.

Bayern Munich – Chelsea
8 August 2020

Bayern Munich have only hosted Chelsea once previously for a competitive match, winning 3-2 in April 2005 in the Champions League, with current Chelsea manager Frank Lampard scoring the opening goal for the Blues.

Chelsea and Bayern Munich last faced in the Allianz Arena in the 2012 Champions League final, with the Blues victorious on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

In the entire history of the European Cup and Champions League, no team has ever won by three or more goals in the first leg of a knockout match away from home and failed to progress, going through on all 92 previous occasions.

Chelsea are winless in their last seven away Champions League matches in the knockout stages (D4 L3) since a 1-0 win at Benfica in March 2012 in the quarterfinal.

Chelsea have only scored three goals in an away Champions League knockout match once previously, winning 3-1 at Liverpool in April 2009; Bayern have only conceded three times in three of their 43 home Champions League knockout games, though did so most recently in a 1-3 defeat to Liverpool in March 2019.

Bayern have won their first seven Champions League games this season, scoring 27 goals and conceding just five. Only one team has ever won their first eight matches of a campaign, with Barcelona winning their first nine in 2002-03 across the two group stages, before going out in the quarterfinal.

Bayern Munich manager Hans Dieter-Flick is looking to become only the third manager in Champions League history to win his first five matches in charge, after Fabio Capello (first six with Milan in 1992-93) and Luis Fernandez (first six with PSG in 1994-95).

Chelsea have conceded 12 Champions League goals this season, last conceding more during the 2008-09 campaign (13) when they reached the semifinal. The most goals they’ve conceded in a season was back in 1999-2000 (14).

Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski has scored 11 goals and assisted two more in six Champions League appearances this season, averaging a goal or assist every 41 minutes. The German side haven’t won any of their last five knockout stage games in the Champions League in which Lewandowski has not been on the scoresheet (D3 L2).

All six of Serge Gnabry’s Champions League goals for Bayern this season have come against English teams (four vs Spurs, two vs Chelsea). Only two players have scored more goals against teams from a single nation in one season – Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013-14 vs German teams (7) and Luiz Adriano in 2014-15 vs Belarussian teams (8).

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