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UCL R16 Week 4 Update

by @TheCommish ⚽  UCL Free ⚡

Friends in fútbol,

This is the Round of 16's final week. Afterward is the Quarterfinal draw, which produces a real bracket of 8 teams. In April, we'll fill out our brackets, and continue the Pick'em.

Four clubs have advanced: Benfica and Bayern (as expected), Chelsea (... as expected?), and Milan (upset!).

The remaining drama surrounds RB Leipzig, surprise drawers of Man City in the first leg. Can they do the unthinkable?

 

R16 WEEK 4 PICKS

 

After averaging just 1.87 and 1.83 correct picks in the two weeks of Leg 1, we finally crossed the "better than 50%!" threshold with Leg 2's first week.

Is it like "my god, are we really celebrating a 2.06 correct picks average"? Or is it more like "2.06 correct picks average! COME AT US ZLATAN WE WILL SCHOOL YOU AND YOUR MOM AND INSULT ZIDANE'S SISTER WHILE WE'RE AT IT!!"?

Commish prefers the latter but you knew that already.

That leaves us with the following correct pick distribution atop our Zlatan Pick'em leaderboard:

  • 10 correct picks: ONE person (@tjd194)
  • 9 correct picks: 6 people
  • 8 correct picks: 12
  • 7 correct picks: 24
  • 6 correct picks: 21
  • 5 correct picks: 38

We still have 17 picks to go, so you are DEFINITELY not out of it even if you're 4+ wins back at this juncture.

In "should you pick draws?" land, it was quite the comeback week for "YES YOU SHOULD."

We batted .312 on our draw picks. And there's two ways to look at that: First, it's our second-best percentage ever (behind one Group Stage week at 33%); second, it's still just 31.2% success rate.

Still, you weren't gonna make a clean sweep last week (or the week before) without a correct draw prediction. And there inlies the dilemma that makes this such a juicy strategic question.

Our Knockout Stage leader @tjd194? 1 for 1 in correctly picking draws (last week's Milan-Tottenham draw).

The 6 people who are one game back? Half have picked draws in the Knockout Stage so far and half have not.

CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE, MY FRIENDS.

 

BEST R16 WEEK 3  COMMENTS

 

@edudeus (Pick'em: BRU, DOR, PSG, MIL): "Does everyone know the home team is listed first?"
Commish says: Admission: Before doing UCL pools on The SZN - and despite being a soccer player my entire life - I did NOT know this. And it still trips me out. I can deal with inches vs. centimeters and pounds vs. kilograms. But flipping the home and away team in box scores? THIS IS ONE STEP TOO FAR.

 

@Merf (Pick'em: BEN, CHE, BAY, TOT): "Apparently I make my SZN soccer picks with the Hand of God. If nobody catches me, Commish has to refer to me as Merfadona"
Commish says: You know what Zlatan would do in this situation, Merf. You know it. He wouldn't talk about "if". He would change his username to Merfadona and say COME AT ME I'M THE KING

 

@btownlegend (Pick'em: BEN, DOR, PSG, TOT): "Psggggggggggggggggggget over yourself "
Commish says: I still don't understand how a team boasting Messi, Mbappé, AND Neymar can ever lose. I mean, I do understand it. But I really don't.

 

@gobeta (Pick'em: BEN, DOR, BAY, MIL): "Poor Christian. Playing for the wrong team on Tuesday. Time to get out of England!"
Commish says: I totally hadn't grokked that Chelsea-Dortmund was the Pulisic bowl. Just like Chelsea hasn't really grokked that Pulisic is actually on its roster...

 

@Mully (Pick'em: BEN, CHE, PSG, TOT): "No comment"
Commish says: THAT'S NOT HOW THIS WORKS, MULLY

 

Yours in show dives,
The Commish

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