The knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League are just around the corner, and teams in Europe made the most out of the recently concluded transfer window to revamp their squads.
Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea made interesting moves during the winter transfer window, while other teams such as Real Madrid and Roma decided that they were good enough to fight for the title with the players they listed in the summer.
Swiss side FC Basel was the team with the highest amount of switches, as they added three players to their roster and decided to drop seven. On the other hand, Real Madrid chose to keep their squad intact, as no men were left out or added in the winter transfer window.
Big names OUT
Javier Mascherano, Arda Turan (Barcelona), Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Manchester United), Lucas Moura (PSG), Ganso (Sevilla)
Big names IN
Yerry Mina (Barcelona), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Münich), Ross Barkley and Olivier Giroud (Chelsea), Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool), Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City), Alexis Sánchez (Manchester United), Lucas Moura (Tottenham)
Article 44 and why Coutinho can't play for Barcelona
UEFA allows each team to register a player that appeared in an international competition with other clubs, but they're ineligible if they had been fielded by another side in the same competition.
For example, Philippe Coutinho's performances with Liverpool make him ineligible to play for Barcelona, since his former team and his current side are involved in the same tournament. Such is the case of Mexican left back Miguel Layún, who was also left out of Sevilla's squad since he played two games for Porto in the Group Stage.
Alexis Sánchez and Olivier Giroud were allowed to play for their new teams since they didn't play a single minute in the UEFA Champions League. The same rule applies to Lucas Moura, who was registered to play with PSG, but failed to participate in any game.
The Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League begins next week. Full broadcast listings for every game can be found here.
