Goodbye Round of 16

Round of 16 is finally over! The thing lasted like a month, aren't you guys glad it's finally over? I started to get tired of this round 16, round 16 every champions league fixture day. We're already in the year of 2016, so we see the number 16 quite often-- I'm tired of it. 

Well, thinking about it, there's actually one 16 I never get tired of seeing and that's the back of defensive midfielder  Daniele De Rossi's jersey (sorry about the loss to Real Madrid, De Rossi). 

Roma captain Daniele De Rossi. Soccer-infos Image.

But anyways,  goodbye round 16. Hello, quarter-finals. 

Okay, before we say our goodbyes to round of 16, it would be fair if we take a quick look at the best of this first knockout round. I know you like goals, we're going to start with the best goal.

Best Goal

We gotta give it to Luis Suarez kun fu kick against Arsenal. 

Shoalin soccer ain't got nothing on this.

Top Scorer

Yeah-yeah nice goal, Suarez. But it's never about quality in scoring, it's always about quantity. The topscorer of the round of 16 is Suarez's teammate Lionel Messi with three goals. 

 Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Reuters Image.

Best Performance

The best performance also goes to the Argentine forward. Messi scored two second half goals, giving his side a crucial victory over the Gunners away from home in the first leg.

Best Game

Enough of individual performances, let's go collective. Let's talk about the best game. You don't even gotta think about it twice, the best game of this round was the second leg between Bayern Munich and Juventus. Bayern midfielder Thomas Mueller's 90th minute goal sent the game to extra-time after Juventus went ahead by two goals in the first half. 

The German side completed their turnaround in extra-time with two more goals in the span of two minutes. What a game, feel like watching the highlights again just writing this.

               Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller (4th L) celebrates after scoring                                                against Juventus.* REUTERS/Giorgio Perottino, yahoosports.

Sorry, champ

I don't like knockout rounds too much, it's always hard to see good teams leave. One team that it really hurts to see leave this round are the Italian champions and last year's finalist Juventus. If you have players you can score goals like this against Bayern Munich...

... it sucks that you have to leave the tournament so early.

Most memorable moment

Last but not least, the most memorable moment was when Atletico Madrid celebrated Juanfran's game winning penalty kick against PSV Eindhoven at home. The two sides played three hours and 30 minutes of goalless football-- can you believe that? Three hours and thirty minutes! Lord!-- before the penalty shootout.

Take a look at a picture of the Atletico players sprinting towards Juanfran to celebrate. What happened to those extra-time cramps?

Atletico Madrid players celebrate penalty kick victory over PSV Eindhoven.
Getty Images

After looking at the best of round 16, I guess it wasn't that bad, right? It was actually pretty good. But we don't regret it, there's better things ahead. The quarter finals!