This morning the UEFA Champions League round of 16 draw took place in Nyon, Switzerland at the UEFA headquarters. The draw has seen a majority of the bigger sides still in the competition avoiding one another, despite both PSG and Inter being unseeded going into the draw making it likely that they would’ve faced against another European giant.
The biggest games of the draw see SSC Napoli face up against Barcelona, while unseeded Inter did get drawn against three-time runners up Atletico Madrid. However, the rest of the games look to have strong favourites going into the tie with the most enticing of the other games being RB Leipzig vs Real Madrid.
All eyes will be on the two remaining English sides to perform in the rest of the competition, especially with there being a possibility of earning the Premier League an extra spot for a team to qualify for the Champions League due to the competition’s extension to 36 teams from next season. For this to happen, England would have to finish in the top two best-performing nations across all European competitions, calculated through “coefficient points” earned by each club for wins, draws and qualification for future rounds. After Manchester United and Newcastle United were knocked out in the group stage of the Champions League, England now sit as the third best-performing nation and will need the remaining sides in Europe to go far in their respective competitions.
With this in mind, it will come as good news that Manchester City and Arsenal both seemed to get favourable draws with both sure to be favourites of qualifying for the next round. While Arsenal do have a tough game against FC Porto, they will still fancy their chances of winning this tie. As for last season’s winners Manchester City, they face FC Copenhagen who are the lowest ranked side left in the competition.
UEFA Champions League round of 16 ties:
FC Porto vs Arsenal
SSC Napoli vs Barcelona
Paris Saint-Germain vs Real Sociedad
Inter vs Atletico Madrid
PSV Eindhoven vs Borussia Dortmund
SS Lazio vs FC Bayern Munich
FC Copenhagen vs Manchester City
RB Leipzig vs Real Madrid
The days and times of these fixtures will be confirmed by the end of today, giving us full knowledge of how this season’s round of 16 will look.
