By Enrique Gómez (Fox Deportes)
Barcelona smiles; we’ll have Madrid derby in the next round
As there are no country restrictions in the round of 16, Atletico Madrid will face Real Madrid in this knockout stage and Bayer Leverkusen will have to face Bayern Munich, as luck would have it in this new and limited UEFA Champions League draw.
This morning, the draw for the next round took place, where each club had only two variables to choose from. For example, Barcelona only had the spheres of Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica in their destiny, this because of their position in the table during the league phase and in the ‘roulette’ it was only determined that their rival would be the Portuguese team, while PSG was left with Liverpool.
This is how the Champions League round of 16 and the keys to the semis were defined:
Key 1:
– PSV vs Arsenal
– Real Madrid vs Atlético de Madrid
Key 2
– Paris Sint-Germain vs Liverpool
– Club Brugge vs Aston Villa
Key 3:
– Benfica vs Barcelona
– Borussia Dortmund vs Lille
Key 4:
– Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen
– Feyenoord vs Inter Milan
The first leg of the round of 16 will be played on March 4 and 5, while the second leg will be played on March 11 and 12.
For this edition, the eight teams that advanced directly to the ‘finals’ will face one of the qualified cubes after winning their playoff match. In that sense, Atlético de Madrid, seeded for having finished fifth in the standings, could line up against Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, qualified from the playoff round, after beating Manchester City and Celtic, respectively.
There were some great matches in the Champions League, where only one Italian team (Inter) is still alive in the tournament, as powerhouses such as Milan, Juventus and Atalanta failed in the playoffs.
