The first week of round of 16 fixtures for the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League delivered mostly small advantages. Wolfsburg edged out Gent 3-2, Paris Saint Germain beat Chelsea 2-1, and Benfica took a 1-0 advantage of Zenit Saint Petersburg. Of those advantages, only Wolfsburg's seems highly unlikely to fall in the second leg of the round. Gent lost at home, which means that Wolfsburg both took the lead in the aggregate and picked up three away goals for their trouble. Chelsea and Zenit, however, both lost in away games, and the Blues even picked up an away goal, meaning that neither football club can be totally counted out of the Champions League tournament at this point.
Real Madrid, on the other hand, feel like the safest of bets to advance to the quarterfinals. The Vikings beat Italy's AS Roma 2-0 in their first round of 16 leg, and they did it at Roma's Stadio Olimpico. Barring some total collapse in the second leg-scheduled for March 9th at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium-Real Madrid should easily progress to the next round of the competition.
Real Madrid: Learning to Play Like a Team
Just how well Real Madrid have been performing this season probably depends on who you ask. Some would point out the club's high-scoring victories and offensive brilliance as a sign that they are still one of the best soccer squads in the world. Indeed, the Vikings have put on some truly dizzying displays of offensive glory in the past few months, from a 10-2 victory over Villarreal just before Christmas to a 6-0 win against Espanyol