Newcastle face \u2018the biggest game\u2019 in their history, Mikel Arteta can take another scalp and Giorgi Mamardashvili has another opportunity.<\/p>\n
The Champions League knock-out stages also throws up Chelsea versus the holders, and the latest instalment of Real Madrid v Manchester City.<\/p>\n
But perhaps the most compelling battle of all will be Igor Tudor v Spurs.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Game to watch \u2013 Newcastle v Barcelona<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Bodo\/Glimt v Sporting really, but Anglocentrism and Premier League insularity dictates that one of the physical, brutish teams of set-piece obsessed cloggers are given an overdue spotlight as the Champions League shifts into a different gear.<\/p>\n
And among some bountiful options it feels as though Newcastle v Barcelona stands out.<\/p>\n
Eddie Howe \u2013 even if a little performatively \u2013 believes it to be \u201cthe biggest game in this club\u2019s history\u201d. He rather vaguely added that it is \u201can opportunity to grab a moment we may never get again\u201d in a delightful slice of the platitudinal pinnacle he will reach in his inspirational dressing-room speeches.<\/p>\n
It is the third time Newcastle have faced Barcelona this season, but the first step the Magpies have ever taken into the proper knock-out stages of club football\u2019s foremost competition. And another chance to invoke the name of Faustino Asprilla<\/a>.<\/p>\n But fundamentally it is a tie against one of the biggest club\u2019s in Europe, and represents the last bit of tangible progress and pride Newcastle can extract from a largely aimless, disappointing season.<\/p>\n They still have a Tyne-Wear derby and Premier League fixtures against Chelsea and Arsenal to come, but mid-table entrenchment and elimination in both domestic cups at the hands of Manchester City does mean Newcastle\u2019s last modicum of jeopardy and intrigue is contained within this Barcelona double-header.<\/p>\n The combination of opponent and occasion should provoke the sort of belligerent counter-attacking underdogs at home performance Newcastle once specialised in. If the Magpies cannot get themselves up for this either then serious questions will be asked.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Manager to watch \u2013 Mikel Arteta<\/p>\n The path to the Quadruple has opened up further, with Arsenal drawn against one of the two remaining non-Premier League sides in the FA Cup<\/a> as they prepare to face a team in indifferent Bundesliga form.<\/p>\n Bayer Leverkusen were professional in overcoming an Arsenal banana skin of old in Olympiacos to reach this stage, but a team which was ruthlessly plundered last season is still finding its feet under Kasper Hjulmand.<\/p>\n The sixth-best side in Germany should not cause too much discomfort to the competition favourites who have won every game in the tournament thus far and finally displayed their knock-out pedigree last season.<\/p>\n And for Arteta on a personal level, the scalp of Leverkusen in particular is one he has needed to add to his collection for some time<\/a>. One of the strongest sides Arsenal have yet to face under the Spaniard await.<\/p>\n READ: Champions League Power Rankings ahead of last 16: Arsenal or Bayern 1st?<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Player to watch \u2013 Giorgi Mamardashvili<\/p>\n \u201cMy time will come for sure. Maybe not this year but my time will come,\u201d Mamardashvili said of his need to \u201cfind balance between ambition and patience\u201d in his first season at Liverpool.<\/p>\n A matter of hours after those quotes were made public, an injury to Alisson granted the Liverpool back-up his \u201ctime\u201d in remarkably similar circumstances to his first proper run of games under Arne Slot.<\/p>\n Mamardashvili benefited from the unique injury proneness of Alisson earlier in the campaign, replacing the Brazilian during the defeat to Galatasaray in September<\/a> and starting eight of the next nine Premier and Champions League games, in which Liverpool lost five times and conceded 15 goals.<\/p>\n It was a harsh reflection of Mamardashvili\u2019s credentials, a record more reflective of a period of general struggle for the team rather than a difficult transition for one player.<\/p>\n And all Mamardashvili has been given since to rinse out the bad taste of a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City<\/a> followed by a 4-1 thrashing by PSV in November is 90 minutes of an FA Cup tie against Barnsley.<\/p>\n The decision not to play the Georgian in the fifth-round win over Wolves perhaps contributed to Alisson\u2019s latest setback, and means Liverpool will be leaning on a keeper who hasn\u2019t played in 57 days when his \u201ctime\u201d comes on what the club hope will be a more fruitful visit to Istanbul than their last.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Team to watch \u2013 Chelsea<\/p>\n Liam Rosenior and Chelsea still feel like a bit of a curious, entirely doomed match, but they do have one thing in common: a victory over the European champions within the last year.<\/p>\n The circumstances were slightly different. PSG made wholesale changes to the side Strasbourg beat in May, with Luis Enrique preparing for a Champions League final the Parisiens would win comfortably, thus confirming their place at the Club World Cup.<\/p>\n