The draw for the last-16 of the Champions League has been conducted today with Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea discovering their fate.
Liverpool made light work of a tricky group as they progressed to the knockout stages of the Champions League with a perfect record having won all six of their group games. Jurgen Klopp’s side have now been drawn to face Salzburg in the next phase. The first leg will be played in Austria with the return leg at Anfield.
A frustrating draw away to Zeint in their final game meant Chelsea had to settle for second place behind Juventus in Group H. However, the Blues have been fortunate in today’s draw as they avoided the big guns and will now face Lille in the last-16. Chelsea will have to play at Stamford Bridge in the first leg with the second leg away from home in France.
Premier League champions Manchester City edged out Paris Saint-Germain to claim top spot in Group A despite losing their final game away to RB Leipzig last week. Pep Guardiola’s men will now take on Villarreal in the last-16 with the first leg in Spain and the return leg at the Etihad Stadium.
Ronaldo vs Messi
Manchester United have endured a disappointing campaign so far which led to the recent sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer but they still managed to progress from Group F as group winners having taken 11 points from their six group games. Interim boss Ralf Rangnick will now be up against French giants Paris Saint-Germain in the knockouts which means Cristiano Ronaldo will face-off against old foe Lionel Messi. The first leg will be played in Paris at with the return leg at Old Trafford.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid will play Benfica, Atletico Madrid take on Bayern Munich, Inter Milan face Ajax and Sporting Lisbon have been drawn to take on Juventus.
Obviously the stand out tie of the round is PSG vs Manchester United and it will be fascinating to see who comes out on top. The French giants will be heavy favourites but with Ronaldo in their team, United will be confident of causing an upset. Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City will all be very happy with their draw and should be confident of progressing to the quarter-finals.
The first legs will be played on 15/16/22/23 February with the return legs scheduled for 8/9/15/16 March.
