If Barcelona and Lionel Messi are to go all the way – for the first time since 2015 – then they will have to overcome Manchester United and then most likely Liverpool.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus, meanwhile, face a straightforward task against Ajax but then could be paired with a goal-laden Manchester City in the semis.
Cristiano Ronaldo has faced Ajax five times in the Champions League, winning all five games, scoring seven goals. Indeed, aside from Juventus themselves and Bayern Munich, the five-time winner has had more success against Ajax in front of goal than any other team in this competition.
And, after orchestrating a blitz in the last round which accounted for Atletico Madrid, Ronaldo is hitting form at the right time in this competition.
Ajax were classy in their second leg against Real Madrid but that victory owed as much to the listlessness and disorganisation in the opposition ranks as it did to the confidence with which this fearless young Ajax side were playing.
Reaching this stage of the competition means Ajax have already surpassed their expectations for the season and Juve – with all their canniness, quality and experience – will provide a wholly different challenge to the one the Dutch faced in the last 16.
And Ronaldo will be expecting to gorge himself on goals yet again.
Winner: Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo has faced Ajax five times in the Champions League, winning all five games, scoring seven goals. Indeed, aside from Juventus themselves and Bayern Munich, the five-time winner has had more success against Ajax in front of goal than any other team in this competition.
Losers: Manchester United
Had Presnel Kimpembe’s intervention not been given as a handball after consultation with VAR in the last round, then there is a good chance we’d be talking about Neymar’s return to Barcelona with PSG rather than Manchester United lining up opposite Lionel Messi and Co. in the quarter-finals.
It’s been played as some kind of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer masterclass but the truth of the last 16 contest is that United were lucky. Clinical, yes, but lucky
