Atalanta, Lazio, Leipzig and Porto are Real Madrid’s potential opponents for Champions League’s Round of 16

Real Madrid managed to beat Borussia Monchengladbach this Wednesday and won their group as Inter and Shakhtar Donetsk drew their own game. While Madrid had already secured their presence in the next round with the victory, winning the group had big consequences for Los Blancos as they will avoid teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Manchester City or Bayern Munich, all big candidates to win the title.

Now, Real Madrid will face one of Atalanta, Lazio, Leipzig and Porto in the Round of 16. Los Blancos can’t face a Spanish team until the Quarterfinals and Gladbach is also out of the equation for them because of their matchup in the Group Stage.

While all four of those clubs have the quality to be a threat for Real Madrid —mainly because Madrid lost twice to Shakhtar in this competition—, Zidane and his coaching staff can be moderately happy about the upcoming draw.

Atalanta are very dangerous offensively but seem to be right in the middle of some kind of controversy between their main star player Papu Gomez and their coach Gasperini. Lazio are solid but might not have the creativity to create many dangerous plays, and the same could be said about Porto. Red Bull Leipzig should be the toughest of the four teams, with central defender Dayot Upamecano playing great football and Dani Olmo commanding the midfield line.

Still, it’s safe and fair to assume that Real Madrid should and will be considered the favorites to advance to the Quarterfinals even if they keep lacking some consistency. Madrid took care of business in the Group Stage after all their struggles and will find themselves in the driver’s seat to at least play in the Quarterfinals if they show up and play quality football in the Round of 16.