European Championship have enjoyed a series of pulsating group stage edition that on its part signaled a rapid transformation of some recent dark horses to grow from their crucial excellent second tier ranks to become high profile contenders at the highest level of this competition. round of 16 had taken place with many intriguing match ups offer plenty of breath-taking moments for the fans, but on the road to this year’s glory teams such as Napoli, Bayern Leverkusen, Monaco, Sevilla and of course Atletico will be more ambitious to claim their serious title aspiration this season. if the choices to pick the best duels are considered then we might facing more complication to indicate that fact based on the incredible establishments of the fairly ranks of technical productivity share impressively by many teams.
Barcelona vs PSG: the history between two sides is becoming repetitive so much the final storyline is a briefcase of witnessing Barca’s superiority almost entirely. They eliminated the French champions in all the playoffs occasion as well as the group stage battles in recent years, the away goal advantage has led Barcelona winning the aggregate in the quarter final of 2012 season, the one that was fairly considered best of French side in their head_to_head against Barca, the fact was proved when Luis Enrique side demolished their rival in the group stage of 2015 season in reliance of Suarez brilliant individual performance, scoring two superb goals in Paris, while they stamped their dominance after 2_0 win in the second leg. The presence of sensational Zlatan Ibrahimovich and Di Maria as their top stars still wasn’t enough to rescue the Parisians; the scenario simply repeated itself in the next season as catalans conquered the two leg phase of round 16, dedicating to incredible MSN performance and once again their extraordinary magics proved the final word. Both teams relatively have faced some rising challenges this year that highly exposed them particularly in defense. One major difference involves this Time; Ibrahimovich will not be there to spark vital edge and world class touch, while they lack a depth of playmaking creativity and glimpse of penetration without Di Maria and despite adaptation of talented ranks in Lavezzi, Lucas and Matuidi in the midfield along with Cavani’s instinctive vision and pure finishing as their realistically best forward, the team dropped appearance of executing inspiration to win big games. Their defence had shown resiliency problem which put more pressure on the experienced pair of Silva and Luis uncharacteristically. As much Barca looked exposed against speedy teams, but most likely they ultimately are capable of continuing a glorious records against the French side yet again considering the brilliant depth of tactical efficiency, adapted team selection and superior technical productivity they possess at their disposal, the outcome would be predictable; simply Barca has the most gifted weapons that no other teams have arguably achieved to share in nearly a century and truly will not ever at any point in the future, an inspirational profligacy to ultimate legacy known as MSN.
Bayern Munich vs Arsenal: this duel specifically will be considered the most intriguing one in round of 16 for many reasons; one regarding to an intensified history between two sides in the recent years, the other fact indicates to spectacular identity of both club’s superbly entertaining football philosophy and for the inspirational brand of enthusiastic attacking vision they offer to world traditionally. perhaps the head-to-head record favors German side with their most recent showcases against Arsenal proved triumphant in exciting scenarios, while the starting of both teams look to be very familiar once again for the each other. In contrary to previous history the scenario might interestingly turns the table to English side based on some evidences; arsenal has produced masterful performances in all cylinders this season with more ambitious hope to possibly target some major prize at the end of this year. Their attacking quality and potential would be highly considered one of the best in entire Europe, leading by one of the world’s most incredibly gifted playmaking partnership in Sanchez and Ozil. They are the sole inspiration of Gunner’s brilliant attacking identity and offering flash of creativity, edge, fluidity and dynamism when hammering opponents. The addition of Mustafi to large extent elevated their defensive shape that brought in more organized approach as Mertesacker and Sagna have shown good understanding with Turkish player, while the flexibility of midfield in adapting to different tactical dimension has amplified more cohesion and vital deft to control the transition of play in reliance of Cazorla, Ramsey and likes of new signing Xhaka whom possess ability to ignite passing build up and mobility of midfield and equally a vision to dictate the right balance to pace of transition from quick pressing to forward runs, the factors which identified so crucial to their dominance. Olivier Giroud has provided killing instinct and execution vision to his game as a center forward or lying striker with wonderful tally of 27 goals this season. In the that side Bayern has witnessed note intense challenges this year compare to previous campaigns, they visibly struggled to repeat their sublime performances, have lost number of games in both European cup and Bundesliga and have been exposed clearly in defense. The post Guardiola era has evidently proved to be as highly fascinating transition but so much is being viewed as critical that seemingly has shifted the faith of the German super power in unexpected fashion. The overall display of back line looked fragile to define a perfect order of such desirable “dual ideology of tactical revolution philosophy” a rejuvenated idea by pep that ultimately envisioned to combine Barca’s tiki taka brand of possession with Bayern’s dynamic high tempo strategy into a perfected project, yet the effort has experienced noticeable fluxes gradually. With so much commitment to win the ball off the collective pressing to initiate quick build up into possession from deep, Alaba, Lahm and the center back partnership of Boateng_Alonso and even Martinez as back four ambitiously monitoring the open run mobility of midfield and joining the circle of short passing play as pushing off their line to interact winning space for their central men with Alabama and Lahm becoming wing back to anticipate igniting the tempo of wide overlap combinations when the fluid interchanging passes to ignite the change of tempo is orchestrated by technically forces such as Robben, Alcantra and Vidal igniting a neat and dynamic movements to spark penetration often is joined by wide full backs and inside attackers consistently; the intension inevitably will cause a gap to be stretched over central holding areas which would swiftly offer opponents to impose timely waves of direct counter that in some occasions have punished Germans. Champions league defeat in the first day of group stage at Vicente Caldron by Atletico seemed as a tough challenge, but losing to Russian side was considered highly disappointing. They also were fraction short to survive against Bundesliga rivals likes Freiburg, Dortmund and other minor competitions that inflicted strings of surprising defeat to Bayern and left Ancelotti with rising concerns. Muller had struggled to produce much needed efficacy at the heart of attacking play this season that caught him to be off guard in offering vital breakthrough combinations as an advance attacking creator and lacking cutting edge as part of front trio, forcing Robben, Ribery and Vidal to be pushed more deeper against limited high up field spaces when at possession. Lewandowski amplified his unique ability to interact with killing linked up passes and press breaking runs often as lone front man, but his contribution remain positive to create mobility for other attackers in their superbly high tempo transition as an adapted tactical game plan. Arsenal has a famous tradition of being cracked from defensive perspective and their incredible advocated philosophy of enthusiastic technical style unfortunately has suffered almost always, but with applying more promising balance between their entertaining identity of attacking play and reliable protective strategy in defense, while enjoying a superior momentum emerged as the key to navigate their possibly best ever vision of aspiration to fire a shot at the glory then beating a giant like Bayern, a tactically overwhelmed favorite that once considered as nightmare of gunners would become a realistic and ambitious achievement.
