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 Actual Madrid and their metropolis rivals Atletico.
Arne Slot’s Liverpool completed first within the 36-team league part of the competitors to qualify instantly 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 facet Brest 10-0 on mixture.
The primary leg will happen on the Parc des Princes in Paris on Wednesday, March 5, with the return at Anfield six days later, on Tuesday, March 11.
The golf equipment final met within the Champions League within the group stage in 2018/19, when PSG gained 2-1 at house after Liverpool triumphed 3-2 in England.
The one earlier knockout tie between the perimeters got here within the semi-finals of the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1997, when PSG gained 3-2 on mixture earlier than shedding the ultimate to Barcelona.
Liverpool are at present eight factors away from Arsenal on the high of the English Premier League having performed a recreation 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 Membership Brugge or Aston Villa within the final eight.
That raises the potential for an all-English quarter-final between the groups who succeeded one another as European Cup winners within the early Nineteen Eighties.
Villa will face Membership Brugge searching for revenge for his or her 1-0 defeat towards the identical opponents in Belgium within the league part in November.
Actual, contemporary from eliminating Manchester Metropolis within the play-offs, shall be at house within the first leg towards Atletico on March 4.
The rivals from the Spanish capital met within the competitors in 4 straight seasons within the final decade, with Actual popping out on high each time.
They gained the finals of 2014 and 2016, in addition to within the quarter-finals in 2015 and within the semi-finals in 2017.
“It is 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 perimeters.
“We now have to play two magnificent video games due to the standard of our opponents, however now we have full confidence in our gamers and their means to beat all difficulties,” mentioned Emilio Butragueno, the previous Actual participant who’s now the membership’s director of institutional relations.
– Bayern towards Leverkusen –
The winners of that tie will progress to a last-eight conflict towards both PSV Eindhoven or Arsenal.
The Gunners, who got here third within the league part, shall be arising towards a membership they confronted within the group stage of final season’s Champions League — Mikel Arteta’s group gained 4-0 at house earlier than drawing 1-1 within the Netherlands.
“We have performed towards them, they’re a very good group. We now have skilled it and it is going to be actually troublesome,” Arteta mentioned of the reigning Dutch champions.
“We all know what we face. When you’re at this stage each group is admittedly, actually good. When the time comes we shall be prepared for it.”
One other 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’s the first time two Dutch golf equipment have been within the final 16 since 2005/06.
Present La Liga leaders Barcelona will face Benfica, who they defeated 5-4 away in Lisbon final month on their option to ending second within the league part.
Final season’s overwhelmed finalists Borussia Dortmund will tackle French facet Lille.
The semi-final draw raises the potential for last-four showdowns between Liverpool and Arsenal, or between Kylian Mbappe’s Actual Madrid and his outdated membership PSG.
Barcelona are on the identical facet of the draw as Bayern and Leverkusen.
This season’s closing takes place in Munich on Might 31.
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