Maximo's Take

The last two matches of the Chanpions League provide a big contrast. In my opinion today we have the duel with the biggest favorite and also the most 50/50 one. Let's discuss the premiere match of this round of 16 and what we should expect Real Madrid x Manchester City Once again we see Real Madrid facing a tough opponent right out of the gate after finishing second in their group. Pep Guardiola gets a chance for his first signature win in Europe with Manchester City. Oddly enough despite their struggles in the Premier League, the bookies have Manchester City as the favorites to win it all, something that if you saw any of my earlier posts I don't necessarily agree with. What reason would you have to put the Citizens ahead of Liverpool is beyond me. It's hard for me to even say that City is a slim favorite in the round of 16, much less to win the whole thing. Both teams have big absences as Sterling and Hazard won't be able to play but looking at the sq...

Dave Gettleman spoke during the Combine and expressed a willingness to move back in the Draft. The New York Giants sit at the number 4 position in the 2020 NFL Draft and although we are taught not to put too much stock into what GMs say to the media especially not when it's something as generic as we are willing to trade down. After all unless you are the Colts waiting to pick Peyton Manning with the top spot you should at the very least entertain the idea of moving back, but hearing that from Dave Gettleman actually meant something. The former Panthers GM is known throughout the industry for being a guy that doesn't trade down, he didn't in Carolina and he hasn't done it in New York either. In fact he traded up for DeAndre Baker in last year's first round but speaking to the media at the Combine he admitted to that possibility. Giants fans all around the Globe have been adamant that Gettleman should shop around the pick and the reason behind it is n...

The Bavarians travelled to London and got a little taste of revenge against Chelsea winning the match 3-0 and doing as much as any team possibly can to lockdown a ticket to the next round in the first leg. Before we get into how to match unfolded I'd like to highlight a curious stat. With his two goals tonight, Serge Gnabry has upped his total in this year's Champions League to 5 6 goals and they all came in London. That's remarkable in an irrelevant way. As the match reached halftime it was still scoreless but looking at what happened during the first 45 minutes it was clear that the Blues were in trouble. The absence of Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi really hurt the home side because in a match where Bayern dominated the ball, they needed more explosiveness on the counter. Olivier Giroud actually did a decent job holding the ball up but Mason Mount who got the majority of opportunities wasn't fast enough to do anything with it. On the defensive side even with a ...

Traveling to Italy for the first time in the knockout stage of the Champions League since that pitiful loss against Roma, Barcelona will take on Napoli Throughout all of it's inconsistency during the last few years we have been able to count on Barcelona as a nearly unbeatable side in the early stages of the Chanpions League. Even in a season on a tough group, when the manager was fired they qualified as the first place team pretty easily. Barcelona now faces a favorable draw and although they come in at a moment where their confidence is low given their recent struggles, nobody expects to see Napoli advancing. This Napoli team shows how much the quality of your opponents during the group stage can make a difference in whether or not you advance. That seems obvious but if you look at Napoli ever since Sarri elevated them into a higher category, this is their worst side during that span. Last year Napoli was a better team under Ancelotti and they didn't advance in t...

Previewing the first of four amazing matches this week in the Champions League Last week the unpredictability of this competition hit us all with losses from three of the four sides that finished first in their group. A fact that corroborated with mg previous statement that the group stage is not much of an indicator as to how will clubs perform in the knockout stage. Favorites PSG and Liverpool were defeated away from home but remain hopeful of a turnaround heading back to their stadium. Losing by only one goal is a big part of that and they're also better than their respective opponent, but to convert that into a positive result undee these conditions is a whole nother story. Tottenham and Valencia will have to play significantly better in order to advance and it'll be up to Leipzig and Atalanta, a couple of inexperienced sides to close the deal after very strong performances in the first leg. It goes without saying that despite playing on the road the Italian side...

The final review of the first four Champions League matches. In London the Germans were victorious in a 1-0 contest. With so much to discuss regarding this duel let's get into it. Tottenham 0 x 1 Leipzig The amount of pressure that Julian Nagelsmann's side put on Spurs within the first five minutes of the match was unreal and that was a preview of what was to come throughout most of the 90 minutes. The high pressing from Leipzig suffocated Totenham's backline and made for a quick recovery of the ball from the visiting side. Harry Winks and Gedson Fernandes couldn't really get involved in the game and without a target man that could hold the ball it was equally tough to do any damage playing long passes to escape the press. It felt to me like the ideal game for Ndombele because of his ability to retain the ball and get out of tough situations but he hasn't really played up to his own standards in his first season in London, but I still would've pic...

Let's breakdown Wednesday's matches and a couple of interesting results. In this article we'll talk about the match at one of Europe's historic sites the San Siro. It wasn't Inter, it wasn't Milan, the Italian side that ran over Valencia was Atalanta. Atalanta 4 x 1 Valencia While I picked the Italians to advance into the Quarterfinals even I and the most ambitious Atalanta fan didn't expect such a lobsided win. That final goal by Valencia keeps them alive and they now need a 3-0 win instead of a 5-0 victory which was the case when the match was 4-0. The reasoning behind picking Atalanta was simple as I explained in my preview. Playing the first match at home wasn't necessarily a bad thing.  Looking at the style of play from both teams even if Valencia were to come out of the first leg with a good result I didn't expect to see them scoring multiple goals and in such case the Bergamo side would travel to Spain with a good chance to advanc...