Friends in fútbol,
The Champions League quarterfinals start Tuesday. We finally have a true bracket of the final 8 squads, and the fútbol gods were like "oh you want to redraw the matchups? Well let's have some damn fun."
One bracket side features Man City, Bayern, Madrid, and Chelsea. Buckle up.
We now fill out a proper Bracket of the last 8, plus our standard Pick'em routine. Get picks in by Tuesday morning!
QUARTERFINALS PICKS
The other bracket side is... less intimidating, with Milan, Benfica, Napoli, and Inter.
But don't get it twisted - all four of those squads are playing well, and Benfica and Napoli have absolutely torn through the competition thus far.
So where do our pools stand after the Round of 16? Let's take a look...
Coupe des Clubs Bracket
Reminder on how it works: The true Bracket starts now (in the Quarters), so for the Round of 16 we just picked who'd advance from each matchup. Points per win, per round: 3, 5, 8, 13
Leaders: Three brave and bold souls went a perfect 8/8 in the Round of 16. Shout-out to @Ctbakes, @Mike53re, and @jriles0798 for being in poll position heading into the Quarters.
Average score: We averaged 5.25 wins (out of 8), which equates to 15.75 points on average. With 7 matchups left and 49 points still possible (if you have a perfect bracket), it's still anyone's pool.
Best and worst Round of 16 picks: 98% of us were on Man City - FAR and away our biggest pick. They scared us with a first leg tie, but blew away RB Leipzig in the second leg. Our "worst" pick was simply our only real favorite to lose - Tottenham was backed by 62% of us and fell to Milan.
Zlatan Pick'em
Knockout Stage leader: Somehow, @tjd194 nailed 14 of 16 picks in the Round of 16 (see picks) including going 2/2 on DRAW picks. They've got a one-game lead over @thenige1 and @brianrwagner.
Knockout Stage average: 8.3 correct picks was our average. We needed our best performance in the 2nd leg of the 2nd matchday (2.54 / 4 correct picks) to boost ourselves above .500.
Overall leader: We don't have Overall prizes for the Zlatan Pick'em (just Group Stage and Knockout Stage, separately), but, hilariously, unbelievably, impressively, Team SZN member @Merf has a FOUR game lead in the Overall standings. He can't win prizes anyway, because he's Team SZN, but dude is absolutely cleaning up. Big ups to you, @Merf.
Get those picks in, give some love to your Zlatan 3x lifesized fathead, and go find a way to get Zlatan in the damn pool.
Somebody has to know someone who knows Zlatan. WE CAN DO THIS, PEOPLE.
Yours in show dives,
The Commish