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GM football fans. It’s Tuesday, Feb. 17 - The Champions League play-offs kick-off today, the FA Cup draw has been finalised, and everything else you need to know. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
KEY FIXTURES
Champions League Knockout Round Play-Offs, 1st leg, (Feb 17): Benfica vs. Real Madrid, 20:00 GMT / 15:00 ET. Benfica have lost their last five Uefa two-legged ties against Spanish opposition, but they have won four of their previous six Uefa home matches this season. Meanwhile, Real Madrid have won ten of their last 12 two-legged ties in the Champions League. Borussia Dortmund vs. Atalanta, 20:00 GMT / 15:00 ET. Dortmund’s record against Italian clubs is mixed, with just one win in their last seven Champions League meetings with Serie A opposition (D3 L3). Atalanta, though, have lost each of their last five Champions League knock-out games. Monaco vs. Paris Saint-Germain, 20:00 GMT / 15:00 ET. The most recent meeting between these sides in Ligue 1 was in November when Monaco beat PSG 1-0. Last year, when PSG won their first Champions League, they beat Brest 10-0 on aggregate in the play-off round, the second-biggest aggregate victory in the competition’s history. See every knock-out round play-off fixture here.
Results…
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TOP TALKING POINTS
Champions League Play-Offs
The Uefa Champions League knock-out phase play-offs kick off on Tuesday (Feb 17) as teams who finished between ninth and 24th in the league phase (see table) face off across two legs for a place in the last 16. Eight of the 16 teams will advance after the play-offs. See the fixtures here.
The away sides are expected to dominate in the first leg, according to Opta’s match prediction model. It predicts that all first-leg matches, except two (Dortmund vs Atalanta and Olympiakos vs Leverkusen), will end in away-side victories. This includes victories for Juventus, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle, Inter Milan, and Atletico Madrid.
The standout fixture from the play-offs is Benfica hosting Real Madrid on Tuesday. Benfica, managed by former Real boss Jose Mourinho, sealed their spot in the play-offs with a 4-2 win against Real in the final match of the league phase, with goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scoring a 98th-minute header. The victory also knocked Real out of the automatic qualification spots, from third to ninth. "They are wounded. And a wounded king is dangerous," Mourinho has said in the build-up to the match.
See possible line-ups for each team here.
FA Cup Fifth-Round Draw
Following the conclusion of the FA Cup fourth round, the fifth round draw has been made. See the fixtures here.
Of the eight fixtures, four are all-Premier League ties: Fulham vs Southampton, Newcastle vs Manchester City, Wolves vs Liverpool, and West Ham vs Brentford. Elsewhere, League One side Mansfield Town will host 14-time winners and Premier League leaders Arsenal, and Championship promotion chasers Wrexham welcome eight-time winners Chelsea.
The fifth round will be played around the weekend of Saturday 7 March, with games likely to run from Friday to Monday. Winning clubs in the fifth round will receive £238,500 from the competition prize fund—see the prize fund for each round here.
Dream Transfer Crowd-Fund
A Swedish second-tier club has started crowdfunding to re-sign their “dream signing” and fan-favourite Curtis Edwards. The 32-year-old attacking midfielder played for Ostersund for four seasons from 2016 to 2019, registering 15 goals and 12 assists in 106 games.
The Swedish club asked fans to raise 200,000 SEK ($22,326; £16,379) for Edwards ahead of the new season, and they managed to raise over half of the funds in 24 hours. Edwards is currently at fifth-tier English club Gateshead after his contract at League Two side Notts County was terminated by mutual consent.
“Curtis Edwards is very important player for Ostersunds FK and has a great history in the club,” a club spokesperson told The Athletic. “Our fans love him and when we saw an opportunity to take him ‘home’ we discussed with him and we informed him that we will try to raise money to sign him.”
POLL
Harry Kane become the first Englishman to score 500 goals. Is he England's greatest-ever goalscorer?
ON THE BALL
Europe
> Jurgen Klopp’s agent Marc Kosicke has claimed that both Manchester United and Chelsea made approaches for the German manager following his departure from Liverpool (More); both clubs deny any contact with Klopp’s agent (More)
> The Premier League and EFL will resume their procedures for Ramadan, with matches pausing briefly to allow Muslim players to break their fast (More) | Premier League referee Chris Cavanagh will not officiate in the next round of fixtures after a series of errors during the FA Cup tie between Aston Villa and Newcastle (More)
> Coventry City reclaim the top spot in the Championship following their 3-1 victory over second-place Middlesbrough (Match Report); see the Championship table (More)
> Bayern Munich goalkeeper and captain Manuel Neuer has been ruled out of action for several weeks with a calf injury (More)
> Ligue 1 referee faces one-month suspension following the controversial second-yellow given to Juventus defender Pierre Kalulu (More)
Americas
> Angel City defender Savy King, 21, is set to return to football on Sunday, 283 days after she suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch (More)
> Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner continues to be under investigation by MLS and remains on administrative leave with no resolution expected to come soon (More) | Since Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami, the club’s revenue has risen from $56m to $200m (More)
> Neymar made his return from injury for Santos by recording an assist in a 6-0 win over Velo Clube (More)
> Canada Soccer has struck a new marketing and sponsorship rights agreement with Canadian Soccer Business (More)
Rest of the World
> Al Nassr coach Jorge Jesus says his team must find ways to compensate for a lack of "economic power" to beat big spenders Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League (More)
> Newcastle Jets defeated 10-man Perth Glory 3-1 in their seventh consecutive win and move five points clear of second-placed Auckland FC in the A-League standings (More)
ROUTERS’ VOICE
Yesterday’s Poll: Has the FA Cup shown football is better without VAR?
🟨 🟨 🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ 👍 Better (32%)
🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟩 🙅♂️ Worse (63%)
🟨 ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ⬜️ ✍️ Other (4%)
Your punditry takes:
👍 R.S: “VAR is the ultimate solution to avoid unnecessary discussions, as with the naked eye, it is difficult to see the tiny margins or errors of the off-side problems. VAR is here to stay.”
🙅♂️ K.B: “VAR has shown that the standard of refereeing has significantly worsened since its introduction. We essentially have two refs per game now, and they both have different ideas of how to interpret the laws. The on-field ref now thinks he always has the backup of VAR. ”
✍️ S.K: “It's a question whether you want a free-flowing game with massive errors, or a game with starts and stops but is (mostly) correct, and VAR-sanitised rulings. Nothing will be 100% correct; either we live with game fluency and subjective rulings, or a choppy match, with objective rulings. Hmmm, tough choice.”
EXTRA TIME
Three ways the Champions League format could be improved.
The designers saving football kits from landfill.
Why is there a four-week break in the WSL?
Thomas Muller goes through his career in shirts.
Is the number 10 role Saka’s next step?
Why clubs keep spending money to sack managers. (video)
The Premier League's best and worst players at different skills.
GAME FACE ON
Question: Which is the only football club to have won the European Cup or Champions League more times than they have won their own domestic top-flight league title?
Scroll below for the answer.
Daily Wordle: Guess the football-related word, from player names to classic phrases, in six tries or fewer. Play it here.
It wasn’t what I expected coming into the season. I tried to guard against this situation happening, but it’s the reality.
Answer
Nottingham Forest.
