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Now is when the rubber meets the road. After a January loaded with (often delightful) cup ties, endless transfer rumors (most of which went nowhere), and lots of cold rain, February raises the stakes pretty significantly in Europe.
The UEFA competitions return -- the respective first legs of the Champions League round of 16 come in the middle of the month -- and from England (first-place Liverpool at third-place Arsenal) to Germany (second-place Bayern Munich at first-place Bayer Leverkusen) to Spain (first-place Girona at second-place Real Madrid) to Italy (second-place Juventus at first-place Inter), we've got a lot of enormous league matches popping up in a short amount of time.