Canada’s Atiba Hutchinson is headed to the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League with his professional club, Turkish Super Lig Champions Beşiktaş. Hutchinson’s team was drawn against Bayern Munich at the UEFA Champions League round of 16 draw early Monday morning at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, France.
Beşiktaş have emerged as one of the best teams in the competitions, in large part through Hutchinson’s superb play at centre midfield. Hutchinson covered over 50 kilometres across his five games played in the group stage - the most distance for time played of any Beşiktaş player - and even more remarkably he posted a 95 percent pass completion, recovered 27 balls, and laid out seven tackles.
In progressing to the knock-out round of the Champions League, Hutchinson joins a very small group of Canadian Internationals who have risen to the top ranks of European club football, including Tomasz Radzinski in the 2000-01 season for Anderlecht and Paul Stalteri in the 2004-05 season for SV Werder Bremen. Should Hutchinson’s Beşiktaş progress to the Quarterfinals he will be the first Canadian to ascend to that level.
UEFA Champions League
Hutchinson’s Turkish side clinched group G in the first round of the competition with 14 points, going unbeaten across six matches. Beşiktaş defeated Porto 3-1 in Portugal to kick off its campaign, followed by a 2-0 win over LEIPZIG at home, and a 2-1 win over Ligue 1 Champions Monaco in Monaco. They also, posted two one-all draws against Porto and Monaco at home to clinch top spot in Group G before a final 2-1 win away against Leipzig to round out the group stage.
Beşiktaş will play Bayern Munich away in the round of 16 first leg on 20 February at 20:45 CET (14:45 ET), and then again at home in Beşiktaş Park in İstanbul, Turkey for the return matches on 14 March at 18:00 CET ( Noon ET). Each pairing in the knockout phase, apart from the final, is played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs advance to the next round.
Canada Soccer Men’s National Team
Hutchinson is a long-time leader of Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team, having made 74 appearances with six of those wearing the captain’s armband, including Canada’s recent 2-0 win over Jamaica in front of a crowd of 21,724 at BMO Field in his hometown of Toronto in September.
Hutchinson has won Canada Soccer Player of the Year five times, in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016.