These are the clashes for the Champions League knock-outs
Check out the match-ups for the Champions League knock-outs draw following Friday's draw which took place at 12:00 CET at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.
The round of 16 and the final draw are as follows
LAST 16 (First leg 4 and 5 March / Second leg 11 and 12 March)
OF1: PSV vs Arsenal OF2: Real Madrid vs Atlético OF3: PSG vs Liverpool OF4: Brugge vs Aston Villa OF5: Benfica vs Barcelona OF6: Borussia Dortmund vs Lille OF7: Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen OF8: Feyenoord vs Inter Milan
QUARTER-FINALS (First leg 8-9 April / Second leg 15-16 April)
QF1: Winner OF1 (PSV or Arsenal) vs Winner OF2 (Real Madrid or Atlético) QF2: Winner OF3 (PSG or Liverpool) vs Winner OF4 (Brugge or Aston Villa) QF3: Winner OF5 (Benfica or Barcelona) vs Winner OF6 (Borussia Dortmund or Lille) QF4: Winner OF7 (Bayern Munich or Bayer Leverkusen) vs Winner OF8 (Feyenoord or Inter Milan)
SEMIFINALS (First leg 29-30 April / Second leg 6-7 May)
SF1: Winner QF1 (PSV, Arsenal, Real Madrid or Atlético) vs Winner QF2 (PSG, Liverpool, Brugge or Aston Villa) SF2: Winner QF3 (Benfica, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund or Lille) vs Winner QF4 (Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Feyenoord or Inter Milan).
FINAL (31 May at the Allianz Arena in Munich)
PSG vs. Liverpool and Benfica vs. Barcelona
The round of 16 draw is closed with these last crossings! Barça will return to Lisbon. Great match between PSG and Liverpool.
PSV vs. Arsenal and Feyenoord vs. Inter Milan
The penultimate pot is now closed. Only Liverpool and Barça remain.
Confirmed! There is a Madrid derby in the Round of 16
A bombshell! The Madrid derby is out in the round of 16. Bayern Munich will face Bayer Leverkusen.
First ties of the round of 16: Brugge-Aston Villa and Borussia Dortmund-Lille
The first two knockout ties are with the seventh and eighth seeded teams.
Former Bayern's Élber will be the one to take the pot balls
With the pots already on the table, former Milan, Bayern Munich and Cruzeiro player Élber will be taking the balls.
The Champions League draw is underway!
Presentation of the participations and explanation of the mechanics that will be carried out in this first process. To begin with, the seeded teams will start in reverse order to how they finished the League Phase. Each pair will go to one side of the draw.
Everything ready for the Champions League draw!
Everything is ready in Nyon for the Champions League knock outs draw to start in just a few minutes, which will leave us with the final brackets until the grand final.
What will be drawn in the round of 16
The current Champions League table has already been reviewed on more than one occasion, but it may change greatly after what happens on Friday. The eight clubs that made it through the play-offs (PSG, Brugge, Real Madrid, PSV, Benfica, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Feyenoord) have been drawn into a bracket from which they know the two possible opponents they will face in the round of 16 according to their previous ranking in the league phase. For example, the Parisians will face Liverpool or Barça. For Ancelotti's side, Atletico or Bayer Leverkusen. They also know what would be their potential match in the quarterfinals. PSG is linked with Brugge and Lille or Aston Villa; Madrid, in their case, with PSV and Arsenal or Inter. This is important to underline: none of this is going to change in this draw. The first thing that will be known is which teams will cross paths in the round of 16. That is, which side Liverpool and Barca, Lille and Aston Villa, Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal and Inter Milan will go to. All these pairs will each go to one side, so they will not be able to cross paths until a hypothetical final. For this first part of the process, there will be four pots with the seeded pairs, starting with the 7th-8th pair (Lille and Aston Villa) and ending with the 1st-2nd (Liverpool and Barça), determining one side of the draw for each one and, with that, the opponent of each one in the round of 16. And here, too, a certainty: all seeded teams (from 1st to 8th in the League Phase) will have the second leg at home in this first knockout round. It is worth noting this: only in the round of 16.
Nyon dresses up one more day to live one of the great moments for UEFA. On Friday, a triple draw will be held that will leave the complete draw for the Champions League, Europa League and Conference after the play-off matches have already been played, once the new League Phase, which has burst with force in its first edition, has been left behind. In the case of the Champions League, it is also looking for pairings for the round of 16, where the 8 teams qualified directly in the overall standings.
What about the quarterfinals and semifinals?
As this Friday will define the complete draw until the final, there was something pending: to know which teams can play the second leg at home in the quarterfinals and semifinals. As we have already mentioned, the top seeds are only assured that privilege for the round of 16, but it will be a draw that will determine which team will play at home in the quarterfinals and semifinals. It will also be drawn at the event in Nyon.
For this part of the process, there will be four pots: two for the left side and two for the right side. And each pot will have two balls that will represent the winners of the round of 16 of each key. Thus, the draw will be made for the home leg of the second leg in the quarterfinals. And the same procedure will be repeated to find out the path to the semifinals. Not so for the final, whose home team will be drawn from the winner of the left side.
Upcoming fixtures
- Round of 16: 4/5 and 11/12 March - Quarterfinals: 8/9 and 15/16 April - Semifinals: April 29/30 and May 6/7 - Final: May 31 (Munich)