Soccer Champions League - Play-Offs 15 February 2023

Dortmund vs Chelsea - Match Preview

Midfielder Julian Brandt is demanding Borussia Dortmund's players can't become complacent if they have any desire to keep their position in the group. The German outfit has piled up six progressive serious successes since the World Cup/winter break, scoring no less than two times on each event, yet Brandt accepts the quality inside the crew is too high to even consider dialling back and cleverly joked last end of the week: "We can't behave like an otter presently, lie on our backs and unwind."

Chief Edin Terzić has been helped by throwing a tantrum crew to browse, and as such his side has moved to inside three places of the best position in the Bundesliga. The UEFA Champions Association (UCL) takes need this week however as Chelsea visit Signal Iduna Park interestingly, and Terzić may be excessively mindful that to set up a stage to advance, his side frantically needs to enhance a winless record from their last dozen excursions against English clubs (D3, L9).

'Kick the bucket Borussen' may fancy their possibilities finishing that go against the Blues, however, who heads to Germany in no structure at all. Saturday's labouring 1-1 draw against West Ham implies the London outfit has gotten only one win in eight excursions in 2023 (D4, L3), while similarly worryingly is their inability to score at least a couple of times in any of those games, regardless of the going after wealth available to them.

All things considered, under tension supervisor Graham Potter could turn into the principal English director to win five sequential UCL matches and he stays sure his side can advance to the quarter-finals, requesting his crew to perform at their best to "acquire the option to win". He will know Chelsea's record in the UCL round-of-16 remaining parts are sketchy, best case scenario, however, advancing from this phase of the opposition only two times in their last six endeavours.

📋 Key News: Dortmund's Emre Can have seen three of his four home individual H2H gatherings with Chelsea end 1-1 (L1), regardless of his side scoring first in every one of those draws. He'll endeavour to foil Kai Havertz, who has a stunning record against the German outfit, getting a vocation joint-high five losses in seven H2H conflicts (W1, D1).

⚡ Hot Fact: Dortmund have lost three of their last six home ties in the UCL last-16 phase (W2, D1).

Club Brugge KV vs Benfica - Match Preview

A re-visitation of UEFA Champions Association (UCL) activity for this last-16 conflict appears to be opportune for Club Brugge, who has floundered of late on the homegrown stage, winning only one of their nine games (D6, L2) following the World Cup break. That doesn't make for charming perusing in front of the visit of Benfica, however, the reality is Club Brugge's UCL knockout presentation ought to float them in anticipation of a very first H2H meeting.

Club Brugge qualified in second (W3, D2, L1) behind Benfica's Portuguese opponents Porto in Gathering B subsequent to keeping a noteworthy five clean sheets across their gathering games. No club got more closed-outs than that in the gathering stage, and Club Brugge may again be depending on that protective strength as they try to refine a run of four losses from their last five games in European contests against Portuguese resistance.

Regardless of a six-game unbeaten run going before it, Primeira Liga pioneers Benfica travel to Brugge on a killjoy after a quarter-last Taça de Portugal punishments rout against Braga. Having proactively been taken out of one cup rivalry, Benfica will be sharp not to tumble to a similar destiny and should be sure they can take a positive first-leg result back to Portugal, given they're unbeaten in their ten UCL games this term (W8, D2) tracing all the way back to their August qualifiers.

As a matter of fact, you'd need to return to August 2021 (W5, D3 since) for Benfica's keep-going UCL rout out and about, and with only one loss from their last 14 games in European contests against Belgian resistance (W9, D4), few would wager against that run reaching out here. They are without Enzo Fernández after his large cash move to Chelsea, so it is not yet clear the way that Benfica adapt both in his nonappearance and in the midst of a pile of changes to their UCL crew.

📋 Players to watch: Hans Vanaken has scored Club Brugge's last two serious goals and every one of his last six strikes has shown up before the break, while Benfica's João Mário has seen three of his four UCL goals this term show up from the punishment spot.

⚡Hot Fact: Four of Benfica's last five UCL games saw the two groups score in the principal half.