The pair of English Premier League teams, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City, will take to the field on Tuesday in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first-leg ties. Both sides finished top of their respective groups earlier in the campaign and will now reap the rewards of their efforts by playing the second legs of the tie at home in two weeks’ time.
UEFA Champions League fixtures:
Tuesday, 13 February 2018
Juventus vs Tottenham Hotspur
FC Basel vs Manchester City
Both games expected to kick-off at 19:45(7:45pm) GMT
Juventus vs Tottenham Hotspur
Juventus Stadium, Turin
Current Italian champions and last season’s beaten Champions League finalist Juventus are currently on an astonishing 11-game winning streak since their goalless stalemate against Inter Milan at the start of December, scoring 25 goals along the way whilst conceding just once. The Old Lady has the joint-best defence in Serie A currently, along with leaders Napoli who are now only a point ahead of them. Spurs, unbeaten in their last 12 matches, will be in buoyant mood ahead of a first-ever clash against Juve in the UEFA Champions League. They dispatched neighbours Arsenal 1-0 in this past weekend’s North London derby, Harry Kane with his 32
nd goal of the campaign in all competitions. He was on the scoresheet too when Tottenham and Juventus met in a pre-season friendly back in August, Spurs running out 2-0 victors that day at Wembley as they prepared for life in their temporary new home.
Juventus recent results: (all competitions)
09/02/2018 – Fiorentina 0-2 Juventus
04/02/2018 – Juventus 7-0 Sassuolo
30/01/2018 – Atalanta 0-1 Juventus (Coppa Italia)
27/01/2018 – Chievo 0-2 Juventus
22/01/2018 – Juventus 1-0 Genoa
Tottenham Hotspur recent results: (all competitions)
10/02/2018 – Tottenham 1-0 Arsenal
07/02/2018 – Tottenham 2-0 Newport (FA Cup)
04/02/2018 – Liverpool 2-2 Tottenham
31/01/2018 – Tottenham 2-0 Man United
27/01/2018 – Newport 1-1 Tottenham (FA Cup)
FC Basel vs Manchester City
St. Jakob-Park, Basel
Like their
Premier League counterparts, Manchester City will also have home comforts in the second leg against a side sitting second in their respective league. FC Basel of Switzerland continue to send shockwaves around the footballing world. They reached the last 16 with impressive back-to-back wins over the more favoured teams in the group, Manchester United and Benfica. Basel have had a knack of beating English teams in front of their own fans down the years though, defeating the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool and Raphael Wicky’s men will be hoping to add one more famous scalp to their ever-growing list of achievements. This will be the first time that Manchester City, looking to finally go one better than their solitary semi-final appearance in the competition last season, will face FC Basel in their history. Pep Guardiola’s side have suffered just two defeats across the board all season, while Basel only returned to domestic action a fortnight ago after a near two-month break over the festive period.
FC Basel recent results: (all competitions)
10/02/2018 – Thun 0-2 Basel
04/02/2018 – Basel 0-1 Lugano
17/12/2017 – Grasshoppers 0-2 Basel
09/12/2017 – Basel 3-0 St Gallen
05/12/2017 – Benfica 0-2 Basel (UCL)
Manchester City recent results: (all competitions)
10/02/2018 – Man City 5-1 Leicester
03/02/2018 – Burnley 1-1 Man City
31/01/2018 – Man City 3-0 West Brom
28/01/2018 – Cardiff 0-2 Man City (FA Cup)
23/01/2018 – Bristol 2-3 Man City (League Cup)