UEFA Champions League VPN and Europa League – Round of 16 Preview

Weekends are great aren’t they? Loads of football to occupy and entertain you after the slog of a week at work. Champions League matches are shown by pay-TV broadcaster BT Sport in the UK. Need a Champions League VPN?

You know what can help that slog of a week at work go quicker and help you get to the weekend in better form? Loads of football! And that’s what we get this week as European Club competitions return after a two month break. The first four match in the round of 16 in the Champions League will take place across two nights, while the first legs of all 16 round of 32 ties will take place on Thursday. Fun Fact: ‘Champions League VPN’ is one of the most searched sports phrases on Google!

Our Champions League VPN and Europa League articles are brought to you in partnership with EPL Index, and Dave Hendrick – host of the Two Footed Podcast, offering FREE podcasts to football fans.

We generally preview Premier League games here, and we’ll do that again this weekend, but to change things up a little we’ve decided to go ahead and preview the best of the midweek European contests to save you the hassle if you’re not familiar with some of the teams involved.

⚽ Barcelona vs PSG
📅  Tuesday 16 February 2021
⏰ 2000 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ BT Sport Live Streaming

In another season this would be the glamour tie of the round but neither side carries the luster of previous seasons. Neither team comes into this game in the ideal mental space, though both are certainly doing better than they would have been had they met during the group stage.

PSG, normally the runaway Champions in Ligue 1, currently sit second behind Lille. They have won their last three games in a row and have been in better form since replacing Thomas Tuchel with Mauricio Pochettino at Christmas but they haven’t sparkled as they should. They’ve already lost seven times this season between Ligue 1 and Champions League action, a figure which ties their worst season in the last ten years for defeats in the two major competitions.

They still have a team full of top class players, with the brilliant Marquinhos at the back and the sensational firepower offered by Mbappe, Icardi and loanee Moise Kean. They will be without Neymar who’s suffering from the terrible affliction of his sister having a birthday party but will hope to have Marco Verratti back to orchestrate things in midfield

Barca are third in La Liga, eight points behind Atletico Madrid who also have a game in hand on them. They have won their last six games in the league but did lose 2-0 to Sevilla last week in the Copa Del Rey. Barca have been in turmoil off the pitch all season long, with Lionel Messi’s agitation for a move away from the Nou Camp casting a shadow over the club and at times distracting from the more pressing issues of their €1billion debt, their President resigning due to public pressure before the scope of his mismanagement could be fully unraveled and the failure to hold an election to appoint his successor.

Barca being Barca they do tend to show up for the Champions League, with Messi always the man for the big occasion while wearing the Blaugrana. Frenkie DeJong is finally showing the form that prompted the massive outlay on him and summer signing Trincao appears to have finally won the faith of Ronald Koeman in recent weeks.

There’s two much talent on display for this game to not produce goals. Mbappe vs Messi will be the headline act, and rightly so, but the individual battles of Verratti vs DeJong, Marquinhos vs Griezmann and Lenglet vs Icardi will all be worth keeping an eye on.

⚽ Sevilla vs Dortmund
📅  Wednesday 17 February 2021
⏰ 2000 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ BT Sport Live Streaming

4th place in La Liga vs 6th place in the Bundesliga might not seem like a game that you simply had to watch, but this is a game that you simply have to watch. In the week that saw the announcement that Marco Rose will take over as BVB manager in the summer, Sevilla manager Julen Lopetegui continues to make those that doubted him after his disappointing spell with Real Madrid look quite foolish.

Off the back of winning the Europa League this season, Sevilla are on the hunt for more silverware and are on the verge of qualifying for the Copa Del Rey final after beating Barcelona 2-0 in the first leg. They’re looking good for a top four finish in La Liga and will fancy themselves against most teams in the Champions League given their proven pedigree in European competition. They’ve won nine games in a row in all competitions, and lost only once in their last 18 matches across all competitions so they will come into this tie full of confidence.

Sevilla have a great blend of youth and experience in their squad, with talent all over the field. They recently added long time Atalanta stalwart Papu Gomez to their ranks and he’s already made an impact. Their main goal threat will come from the combination of Youssef En-Nesyri, who was strongly linked with West Ham in January, and Lucas Ocampos who played such a key role in last year’s Europa League triumph. The star player among the group operates at the other end of the field though. Jules Kounde is the real deal. A world class defender who’s 22 years of age and only going to keep getting better and better. A cross between Lilian Thuram and Fabio Cannavaro in terms of skillset and build, he’s going to be someone the world becomes much more familiar with over the next couple of years.

The Rose news has probably been the highlight of a very disappointing season for Dortmund, who just can not find anything resembling consistency. It’s not even that they struggle to string two good games together, they’re struggling to put two good halves together. They sacked Lucien Favre in mid-December, appointing Slaven Bilic’s former assistant Edin Terzic in what seemed like a strange move at the time but makes sense now as it is clear they were only looking for a placeholder who can get them to the end of the season.

Dortmund have no excuse for their current plight when you look at the talent available to them. Excellent midfielders in Emre Can and Jude Bellingham, fantastic attackers in Julian Brandt, Marco Reus, Gio Reyna and, of course, Jadon Sancho, and the goal machine that is Erling Braut Haaland. Despite the defensive issues that mostly stem from the decline of Mats Hummels, they have the attacking talent to match any team in the world and the battle of their attack vs the Sevilla defense led by Kounde and Diego Carlos should be hugely exciting.

⚽ Lille vs Ajax (Europa League)
📅  Thursday 18 February 2021
⏰ 2000 UK Kick-Off
🖥️ BT Sport Live Streaming

The fun doesn’t stop with the Champions League, as there’s a full run of Europa League games on Thursday night, with the pick of the bunch being this one. Top of Ligue 1 vs Top of the Eredivisie.

Lille have taken advantage of PSG’s struggles to sit top in France, though they did have their lead cut to just one point after a disappointing draw at home to Brest at the weekend. They’re a team built on their defense, which has conceded only 15 goals in league action this season and barring their 3-2 away to Celtic after they’d already qualified they’ve been almost as stingy in the Europa League.

With Sven Botman at the back, Boubakary Soumare and Renato Sanches in midfield and Jonathan David upfront, Lille are like a marketplace for teams looking for high end talent. Their recruitment in recent years, and their ability to sell players like Nico Pepe and Victor Osimhen for massive profits while continuing to get better makes them a highly regarded team amongst Europe’s elite.

Ajax have parachuted into the Europa League after finishing 3rd in a Champions League group behind Liverpool and Atalanta and will fancy themselves as one of the favourites to win the entire competition, though they’ve clearly drawn a very tough first test. Their league form has been fantastic and they’re unbeaten in their last 10, with six wins on the bounce.

Like Lille, Ajax are always able to field a team packed with top talent and this season is no different. Dusan Tadic is their main man but players like Antony, David Neres and the exceptional midfield pairing of Ryan Gravenberch and Mohammed Kudus are the ones to keep an eye on. They’ve suffered a massive blow with Andre Onana receiving a 12 month ban after testing positive for a banned substance and while Ajax plan to appeal the ban, they will have to rely on veteran shot stopper Maarten Stekelenburg in the meantime.

With the news at the start of the 20/21 season that UEFA have secured a court order enforcing blocks on IPTV providers in Ireland, in addition to a similar high court order to block illegal IPTV streaming in the UK as well. The Premier League is also subject to such blocks and the major ISPs in the UK and Ireland are now legally required to block streams from non-official streaming sources.

How to watch every Champions League match from anywhere…