Actual Madrid will play Liverpool within the spherical of 16 of the Champions League in a rematch of final 12 months’s closing.
Madrid beat Liverpool in each the 2018 and 2022 finals and the 2 giants will meet once more in February after being paired up in Monday’s draw, which additionally pitted Paris Saint-Germain in opposition to Bayern Munich. That is a rematch of the 2020 closing, which the Germans gained.
PSG bought a blockbuster draw at this stage for the second straight season. The French champion’s quest for a primary European title was resulted in March by Karim Benzema’s gorgeous late hat trick for eventual champion Madrid.
PSG was unseeded on this draw and left uncovered to going through Bayern as a result of a stoppage-time objective for Benfica in a 6-1 win final week at Maccabi Haifa meant the Portuguese membership topped their group.
Benfica was rewarded Monday with a pairing in opposition to Membership Brugge, the Fifteenth-ranked staff within the draw.
The bottom-ranked staff, AC Milan, shall be at residence in opposition to Tottenham within the first leg in its return to the Champions League knockout rounds after a nine-year hole.
Manchester Metropolis was paired with Leipzig, and Chelsea was drawn to face Borussia Dortmund in Premier League vs. Bundesliga clashes.
Napoli, the highest scoring staff within the group stage, will play Eintracht Frankfurt, and Inter Milan is at residence first in opposition to Porto.
Groups from the identical nation or who performed one another within the group stage couldn’t be paired collectively within the spherical of 16.
First-leg video games are performed from Feb. 14-22. Return video games are from March 7-15.
The unusually lengthy wait of greater than three months between the group and knockout phases was brought on by the World Cup in Qatar being performed in November and December.
The congested season meant the six-round group stage began sooner than common in September and was accomplished in simply 9 weeks.