Champions League round of 16: Key storylines for Atletico Madrid-Chelsea,

Another week of UEFA Champions League round of 16 action has rolled around, and this time it is titleholders Bayern Munich, Lazio, Atletico Madrid and Chelsea’s turn to provide Tuesday’s entertainment. You can watch all the action on CBS All Access. There will be no shortage of quality in either match and last week’s games set the bar high with Paris Saint-Germain’s star man Kylian Mbappe shining brightest against Barcelona at Camp Nou in a 4-1 demolition while Liverpool won 2-0 against RB Leipzig in Budapest, Hungary.

Craving more coverage of the Champions League? The ¡Que Golazo! podcast has a full preview of Tuesday’s action. Listen below:

Atleti are La Liga’s Tuesday representatives and they come up against Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea at Arena Nationala in Bucharest, Romania, while Bayern will attempt to follow Borussia Dortmund’s example to give themselves an advantage against Lazio heading into the return leg in Germany.

Let’s take a closer look at these two fixtures.

Chelsea Tactician Tuchel targeting solid Simeone

Atletico against Chelsea is fascinating largely due to the fact that this will be Tuchel’s first outing as Blues boss in the Champions League. The German, who replaced Frank Lampard as Chelsea manager in Januarya month after parting ways with Paris Saint-German has set himself very high standards after taking PSG to their first ever Champions League final last year.

The former PSG boss navigated tricky ties both last season and in this campaign’s group stage with a mercurial Parisien side that, even after his departure, keeps struggling to change gears when they return to domestic action after their continental exploits.

This season Tuchel managed to engineer an excellent turnaround in Group H that ultimately saw PSG win the group and advance after three consecutive wins over RB Leipzig, Manchester United and Istanbul Basaksehir.

In fact, it was arguably the impressive manner of the 3-1 victory at Old Trafford that appealed strongly to Chelsea when they made the decision to part ways with Lampard after an underwhelming run of domestic form.

Meanwhile, La Liga leaders Atleti are experiencing a difficult run of form with just one win from their last four after draws with Celta Vigo and Levante and then a home defeat to the latter that has seen their lead at the top cut to just three points.

However, Simeone’s men do have a game in hand over bitter rivals Real Madrid in second, so they have some breathing room as they chase a domestic title, and can afford to concentrate on improving their Champions League record which has not exactly been impressive so far in this edition.

A heavy loss away at Bayern and a home draw, as well as a pair of draws with Lokomotiv Moscow meant that qualifying for the knockout round required a vicotry on matchday six, which they delivered with a 2-0 win over Red Bull Salzburg.

Spanish clubs have been suffering in Europe this season with Barca and Sevilla already staring down the barrel at early Champions League exits so it is up to Atleti to buck that trend and put themselves in a strong position ahead of…