The Champions League draw will be held today and there is a likelihood that Barcelona or Athletico Madrid could meet one of the English clubs – Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea, who all topped their respective groups.
The teams who topped their respective groups after the six rounds of group games will be seeded for the knockout. They also have the advantage of hosting the return leg of the affair. Manchester United is the only Premier League side to exit the tournament and relegated to the Europa League.
The draw will hold 11:00 GMT at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Other seeded teams include holders Bayern Munich, La Liga champions, Real Madrid, last season’s runners-up, PSG, and Juventus who leapfrogged Barca to the top spot in their group after a 3-o win at Camp Nou.
🤩 2020/21 round of 16 confirmed!
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) December 9, 2020
🏆 Favourites?#UCL pic.twitter.com/bV1t3dKedY
Since Atletico Madrid also finished as runners up in their group, they could also be paired against any of the English opponents.
What are the chances of Barcelona and Athletico against the English trio in the Champions League?
The last time Atletico played an English opponent in the knockout stage was last season. They knocked out defending champion, Liverpool from the tournament Courtney of a 4-2 aggregate win.
Coincidentally, Liverpool was the one that sent Barca packing last two seasons after overturning 3-0 loss at Camp Nou to win 4-0 at Anfield. They went ahead to win the tournament for the fifth time in their history.
Meanwhile, Barcelona during their last meeting against Man City in the year 2016 won the first leg of their group game 4-0 at the Camp Nou while City won the second leg 3-1.
In their last knockout meeting, which was a season earlier where Barcelona won both legs 1-0 and 2-1 respectively.
After beating Barca in the semi-final of the 2005 Champions League, both teams have been sharing the spoils.
In the last 13 Champions League meeting between both clubs since 2006, they both won three each and drew the remainder.
Chelsea has been having the upper hand against the Los Rojiblancos but the Blues won’t forget the 4-1 capitulation in the 2012 UEFA Super Cup clash.
In their last six Champions League encounters, Chelsea won 2 whilst the remaining games ended in draws.
Although there have been several meetings between the English and Spanish clubs, let’s look at the present form of each side.
Man City topped their group without losing a game and they looked to have kickstarted their season after struggling with injuries and from the beginning.
So, a clash between the Citizens against Athletico Madrid would be mouthwatering. Athletico, who recently lost its unbeaten run in the domestic league looked capable of contesting for titles this season with the acquisition of Luis Suarez.
They got a win over Barcelona for the first time in a long while and they still top the La Liga table with two games in hand.
Barcelona on the other hand will want to avoid the Citizens at least for now as they continue to struggle for form domestically. They will be biting their fingers if they are paired against City because they could have gotten an easier draw if they had reduced the scoreline of their defeat against Juve.
City looked defensively solid recently as they have not been committing errors that had been their trademark. Going forward, they can be ruthless.
The draw for the last 32 of the Europa League will also take place on Monday after the Champions League draw.
Facts about the UEFA Champions League draw
In the round of 16, teams from the same national association cannot be drawn against each other.
Despite being on top of their group, Real Madrid cannot meet Barcelona or city rivals Atletico until the quarter-finals.
The seeded teams include Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Paris St-Germain, and Real Madrid while the unseeded sides are Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Borussia Monchengladbach, Lazio, Porto, RB Leipzig, and Sevilla.
When will the last-16 of the Champions League hold?
The first legs will hold on 16, 17, 23, and 24 February, while the second legs will be held on 9, 10, 16, 17 March.
Seeded teams will first travel to the home of the unseeded side for the first leg before being at home for the return matches.
Meanwhile, there are suprise packages like Atalanta and Borussia Monchenglabach. o, teams drawn against them needs tio be careful.
Lets’ wait till after the draw as that will afford coparism and the likely outcome of the encounters.
You can leave your comment below by predicting the likely draws that UEFA might come up with.
