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Champions League starts round of 16 with a lot of coffee flavor: five Colombians

February 15, 2021 – 09:39 pm
2021-02-15 For:

Newsroom of El País

Starting this Wednesday, the Champions League addresses the phase of direct elimination duels, with the start of the round of 16, always under the threat of the covid-19 pandemic.

Five Colombian players will be on stage with the illusion of advancing to the final stages of the most important club tournament in the world.

Juan Guillermo Cuadrado (Juventus), Mateus Uribe and Luis Díaz (Porto), as well as Duván Zapata along with Luis Fernando Muriel (Atalanta), complete the coffee legion that wants to be the protagonist in the Champions League.

Colombian duel key

One of the highlights of these round of 16 will be tomorrow’s match between Porto and Juventus.

In the Portuguese team will be the midfielder Mateus Uribe and forward Luis Díaz, the latter one of the figures of the Portuguese squad thanks to the great football moment he is going through.

For his part, Cuadrado will be out for the first leg due to the muscle injury suffered at the weekend in the Italian league game and that forces him to be out of competition for at least ten days.

Juan Guillermo will be there for the return match to be held on March 9 in Turin.

Duván and Muriel, hope in Bergamo

It will not be one of the easiest keys for the scorers Duván Zapata and Luis Fernando Muriel, who will command Atalanta’s attack against the always favorite Real Madrid. The two gunners arrive at a good level contributing goals and their offensive ability, qualities that have made them feared attackers in the Italian League.

In front they will have the cast ‘merengue’, which although not going through a good time, is always one of the aspirants to stay with the ‘Orejona’.

A phase threatened by covid-19

The Champions League anthem will be played for sixteen clubs still in contention, but fans will not be able to hear it except through their televisions in these times of stadiums closed due to the health crisis.

But the lack of atmosphere will not overshadow the brilliance of the stars who will meet again at FC Barcelona-Paris SG, four years after the improbable comeback (0-4, 6-1) inflicted in 2017 by the Catalan club the current French European runners-up.

At the same time, Julen Lopetegui’s Sevilla will host Borussia Dortmund with skyrocketing morale after nine consecutive victories across all competitions.

Budapest as plan B

But Uefa crosses its fingers so that Covid-19, even more threatening with its British, Brazilian or South African variants, does not spoil the party.

The governing body of football in Europe had already been forced to adapt the resumption of this edition of the Champions League to face the drastic movement restrictions imposed in Germany, a country that placed four of its representatives in the round of 16.

In this way, Budapest became the venue for the first leg this Wednesday between Leipzig and Liverpool, and the clash between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Manchester City.

The attractive match between Atlético de Madrid and Chelsea, which was to be played in the Spanish capital, was transferred to Bucharest (Romania).

And possibly doubts will arise in the tournament regarding the displacement of Bayern from Munich to Rome to face Lazio, or that of Real Madrid to Bergamo, also in Italy, to visit Atalanta.

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