Liverpool will tackle Paris Saint-Germain within the final 16 of this season’s Champions League whereas Friday’s draw additionally threw up a showdown between reigning champions Real Madrid and their metropolis rivals Atletico. Arne Slot’s Liverpool completed first within the 36-team league part of the competitors to qualify straight for this stage, whereas PSG completed fifteenth and needed to come by means of a two-legged play-off tie through which they crushed fellow French aspect Brest 10-0 on combination. The first leg will happen on the Parc des Princes in Paris on March 4 or 5, with the return at Anfield per week later.
The golf equipment final met within the Champions League within the group stage in 2018/19, when PSG received 2-1 at house after Liverpool triumphed 3-2 in England.
The solely earlier knockout tie between the edges got here within the semi-finals of the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1997, when PSG received 3-2 on combination earlier than shedding the ultimate to Barcelona.
Liverpool are at the moment eight factors away from Arsenal on the prime of the English Premier League having performed a sport greater than their closest rivals, whereas Luis Enrique’s PSG are unbeaten in Ligue 1 this season and sit 10 factors clear on the summit.
With the draw being made as much as and together with the semi-finals, PSG and Liverpool know the winner of their tie will face both Club Brugge or Aston Villa within the final eight.
That raises the opportunity of an all-English quarter-final between the groups who succeeded one another as European Cup winners within the early Nineteen Eighties.
Villa will face Club Brugge looking for revenge for his or her 1-0 defeat in opposition to the identical opponents in Belgium within the league part in November.
Real, recent from eliminating Manchester City within the play-offs, can be at house within the first leg in opposition to Atletico.
The rivals from the Spanish capital met within the competitors in 4 straight seasons within the final decade, with Real popping out on prime each time.
They received the finals of 2014 and 2016, in addition to within the quarter-finals in 2015 and within the semi-finals in 2017.
“It’s a tremendous tie, and we’re prepared for it,” insisted Atletico coach Diego Simeone, who was in cost for all the previous Champions League conferences between the edges.
Bayern in opposition to Leverkusen
The winners of that tie will progress to a last-eight conflict in opposition to both PSV Eindhoven or Arsenal.
The Gunners, who got here third within the league part, can be arising in opposition to a membership they confronted within the group stage of final season’s Champions League — Mikel Arteta’s workforce received 4-0 at house earlier than drawing 1-1 within the Netherlands.
“We’ve performed in opposition to them, they’re a very good workforce. We have skilled it and will probably be actually tough,” Arteta stated of the reigning Dutch champions.
“We know what we face. When you might be at this stage each workforce is admittedly, actually good. When the time comes we can be prepared for it.”
Another standout tie will see Bayern Munich, the present Bundesliga leaders, tackle reigning German champions Bayer Leverkusen.
Leverkusen, coached by former Bayern midfielder Xabi Alonso, are unbeaten within the final six conferences of the golf equipment, together with a 1-0 win within the German Cup earlier this season. The groups have by no means beforehand met in a European tie.
Feyenoord, the 1970 European Cup winners, will play Italian champions Inter Milan, their reward for knocking out AC Milan within the play-offs. The winners of that tie will face Bayern or Leverkusen within the final eight.
It is the primary time two Dutch golf equipment have been within the final 16 since 2005/06.
Current La Liga leaders Barcelona will face Benfica, who they defeated 5-4 away in Lisbon final month on their technique to ending second within the league part.
Last season’s crushed finalists Borussia Dortmund will tackle French aspect Lille.
The semi-final draw raises the opportunity of last-four showdowns between Liverpool and Arsenal, or between Kylian Mbappe’s Real Madrid and his outdated membership PSG.
Barcelona are on the identical aspect of the draw as Bayern and Leverkusen.
This season’s closing takes place in Munich on May 31.
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