UEFA Champions League: Liverpool, Man City look good to progress 

The first set of UEFA Champions League round of 16 seconds legs comprise of an eagerly anticipated return between Real Madrid and Paris, the chance for Salzburg to ruffle Bayern's feathers again, and a Premier League pair seeking to snuff out any potential turnarounds.

Inter victories on English soil are few and far between – they have only won on four of their 16 visits – but they can draw inspiration from the last time they achieved such a feat. Samuel Eto'o was the goalscorer in a 1-0 win away to Chelsea at this stage in 2010, a result that completed a 3-1 aggregate victory and paved the way for them to become European champions for the third time.

The Nerazzurri have previous when it comes to overturning a two-goal deficit against Liverpool too, progressing with a 3-0 second-leg triumph, albeit at home, in the semi-finals in 1965 – another year in which they scooped European football's biggest club prize.

The Reds will not be unduly concerned, however, having won all 34 of the UEFA competition ties in which they won the away first leg. Even on the two occasions they followed up 2-0 away wins with narrow home defeats, in the 2000/01 UEFA Cup against Roma and 2004/05 Champions League against Grazer AK, they went on to win those competitions. 

It is doubtless a source of irritation at Bayern that Karim Adeyemi, who joined the club at the age of eight, appears to be one that got away. But if the 20-year-old Salzburg striker returns to Munich and dumps his home-town club out of the competition, there will be significantly more questions asked about his release and the Bavarian club's much-publicised decision not to try to re-sign him before he headed to Austria at 16.

Julian Nagelsmann's men will not underestimate the visitors after it took Kingsley Coman's last-minute equaliser to extend Bayern's record-breaking run to 22 games away from home without defeat in the competition.

They will also be wary of their former starlet making a timely return to form, Adeyemi coming into the game having failed to find the net in 12 of his last 15 matches after filling his boots earlier in the campaign. "I am still confident," he said after the first leg. "We are young, we are fresh, we can stress them and we can win against any team."

The Merengues' round of 16 woes have resurfaced recently, with two of their last three campaigns ending at this stage. To stop that becoming a trend they thought had been consigned to history, the last player the Spanish giants would want to see pitch up at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is Lionel Messi.

As if facing the Champions League's most prolific round of 16 goalscorer and veteran of 45 Clásico matches during his career with Barcelona was not daunting enough, Madrid also have to banish any memories of an all-time great performance by Messi 11 years ago.

The 2010/11 season was notable for Madrid finally ending a terrible run of six consecutive last-16 exits, before Barcelona stood in their way for a place in the final. Enter Messi. Two goals in the final 15 minutes, the second a mazy dribble past four players, and the Santiago Bernabéu was silenced. Marcelo – one of the quartet bewitched by that Messi run – and Karim Benzema, an unused substitute that night, will be hoping lightning does not strike twice.

It appears to be damage limitation for Sporting now. They had progressed on all eight occasions they faced Premier League teams in two-legged affairs before this tie, but now they will be more concerned about ensuring City do not come close to the round of 16 record aggregate victory that Bayern racked up against the Portuguese side in 2009 – the 12-1 overall scoreline starting with a 5-0 result in Lisbon.

The likelihood of that is small, but with City as clinical as they are relentless, it cannot be discounted. Pep Guardiola certainly thinks there is more to come given his comments after the first leg. "Some players underperformed," he said. "A lot of the time we lost the ball. When that happens against top sides in Europe, you give them a chance to counterattack. We have to improve. The players, they know me. The way we work, we can do better."

Given that City trio João Cancelo, Rúben Dias and Bernardo Silva – who scored twice in the first meeting – came through the ranks at Sporting's Lisbon rivals Benfica, you can expect the Premier League leaders to keep their foot to the floor.