The 2021-22 Champions League round of 16 draw rarely featured a dramatic re-draw, and the mood of many teams changed from joy to sadness, the most representative of which was Real Madrid. In the first draw, they drew Benfica. But in the ensuing draw, Greater Paris became their opponent. It is estimated that after learning of such a result, Real Madrid president Florentino will definitely count down Cheferin in his heart.
There are teams that turn from joy to sorrow, then naturally there will be teams that turn from sadness to joy, such as Atletico. They met Bayern in their first signing, which was almost an early announcement of the end of their Champions League journey. As such, they are also the most aggressive team asking for a re-draw. After re-drawing, they drew manchester United, which obviously resulted in a much better result than Bayern, at least with hope.
So what will be the fate of the teams after a dramatic draw? Is there more hope for promotion or is it still hanging in the air? In this regard, the official Twitter of UEFA organized a fan vote to choose the side you are more optimistic about in these 8 matches, and the result was quite surprising.
Atletico's opponents range from Bayern to Manchester United, but they are not the favourites in the eyes of the fans. Of the more than 110,000 people who voted, 63 per cent were more bullish on United, with a one-sided vote. why? There are two main reasons for this.
One is the existence of Ronaldo, as we all know, Atletico is one of Ronaldo's favorite teams. The data shows that in the past career, Ronaldo has played against Atletico Madrid a total of 35 times, scoring 25 goals. Atletico goalkeeper Oblak has only let one player perform a hat-trick, that is, Ronaldo, and Ronaldo has scored 3 hat-tricks! Simeone's team only let the opposing players score 4 hat-tricks, which are all Ronaldo's. In addition, Cristiano Ronaldo's team has eliminated Atletico out of the Champions League five times, which is definitely a nightmare for Atletico. Therefore, although Manchester United's performance this season is average, with Atletico's absolute bitter owner C Ronaldo, Manchester United is naturally a more optimistic side.
The second is the state of Atletico. This season, Simeone's team has performed modestly, winning just eight of the 16 league rounds that have ended, already as many as 13 points behind Top Real Madrid. In the past 8 games, Atletico have lost 4 and drawn 1, and have basically not won a single game in 3 strong dialogues. And atletico's proud defensive line in the past is no longer stable, conceding 18 goals in 16 rounds, averaging 1 goal + per game, which is a big gap from the average of about 0.7 goals per game in the past few seasons.
In addition to Manchester United vs Atletico, Real Madrid's match against Paris is also the focus. The opponent has changed from Benfica to The Greater Paris, and Real Madrid's promotion hopes will certainly drop sharply. So what do fans think of this game? The voting results show that a total of 53.5% of fans support Real Madrid. But we can also see that a total of 46.5% of fans are more optimistic about Greater Paris, which is also the closest group of duels to get the vote. In short, the strength of the lineup of these 2 teams is very strong, and the key depends on the head coach's on-the-spot adaptability. In this regard, Ann Fat definitely beat Pochettino.
The results of the other 6 votes were very different. Inter vs Liverpool, 80.2% of fans are optimistic about the latter; Juve vs Villarreal, 66.9% of 2 fans support the Bianconeri; Chelsea have drawn Lille twice, the luck is too good, 84.9% of the fans are optimistic about their successful promotion; Benfica vs Ajax, 88% of the fans support Jaffa, which is also the second largest turnout, which is quite surprising; the remaining Manchester City and Bayern have both won the "big package", with a support rate of 84.5% and 89.8% respectively.
Do you agree on the 8 knockout matches?