UEFA Champions League, Round of 16 draw: The UEFA Champions League Round of 16 draw for the ongoing 2022-2023 season of Europe’s biggest club competition was completed at the UEFA headquarters on Monday.
UEFA titleholders League, Round of 16 draw highlights The UEFA titleholders League( UCL) draw for the Round of 16 phase of the elite football event was completed at the House of European Football in Nyon on Monday. In a reprise of last season’s final, record- time winners Real Madrid will meet Premier League titans Liverpool in the Round of 16 phase of the titleholders League. Kylian Mbappe- starrer Paris Saint Germain( PSG) will take on Bayern Munich in the knockout round of the titleholders League.
European heavyweights Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Manchester City, FC Porto, Napoli, Tottenham Hotspur and Benfica surfaced as the group winners in the ongoing season of the titleholders League. Former titleholders Liverpool and Ligue titans Paris Saint Germain( PSG) secured their spots for the first knockout round as runners- up. Liverpool and PSG are joined by AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Club Brugge, Eintracht Frankfurt, Inter Milan and RB Leipzig in the Round of 16 phase of the titleholders League.
Two of the favourites to win the 2022- 23 titleholders League will crash out at the round of 16 in March after a box office draw paired Bayern Munich with Paris Saint- Germain and gave us are-run of last season’s final between Real Madrid and Liverpool.
With the 2022 FIFA World Cup due to kick off in lower than two weeks, the focus of the game is now beginning to be fixed on transnational football’s biggest event. But there will be no time for a World Cup leftover with the titleholders League returning in mid-February with a series of outstanding ties.
While Liverpool- Real and PSG- Bayern are the name institutions, there are some finely balanced ties between AC Milan and Tottenham, Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea, and Club Brugge and Benfica.
Manchester City and Napoli, two of the strongest brigades in the group stage, will also face RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt independently. So how will it all play out, and which brigades will make it to the quarterfinals?
The tie that neither side would have wanted. Liverpool’s failure to finish top of Group A left them vulnerable to facing a big megahit in the round of 16, and they do not come any bigger than defending titleholders Real Madrid, who would also have preferred to avoid Jurgen Klopp’s platoon at this stage.
Liverpool’s mixed form this season make Real favourites to extend their hold over Klopp’s side, having beaten them in their last three titleholders League ties. In fact, away from winning the titleholders League against Tottenham in Madrid in 2019, Liverpool’s expedients in the competition have been extinguished by either Real or Atletico in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022, so the foreshadowings are with Carlo Ancelotti’s platoon.
Liverpool have lost five of their last six hassles with Real, dating back to October 2014, but they’re able of ending that miserable run. Real are unbeaten in LaLiga this season, still, and can go top by winning their game in hand on leaders Barcelona, so they’re in emotional form and will be favourites to beat Liverpool.
A reprise of the 2020 final, when Bayern beat PSG in Lisbon in the French club’s first appearance in the titleholders League final. But having been excluded in the round of 16 by Real Madrid last season, PSG face a daunting challenge if they’re to overcome that disappointment against Bayern.
Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi have delivered in the competition this season, with PSG unbeaten after six games, but Bayern qualified with six triumphs from six in a group containing Inter Milan and Barcelona.
It’ll be a huge clash over two legs, and the winners could go on to lift the jewel in Istanbul coming June. Bayern are as tough an opponent as PSG could have faced.
Pep Guardiola’s City will be strong favourites to win this tie, but Leipzig are a dangerous stranger and their 3- 2 palm against Real Madrid in Group F proved pivotal in their qualification for the round of 16.
Still, it’s tough to see past a City palm over the two legs, but Marco Rose’s club have quality in their team, If Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne are fit.
Still, they could pull off a shock, If Leipzig can keep their stylish players and if forward Timo Werner can recover from the ankle ligament injury that has forced him out of Germany’s World Cup plans. Make no mistake, City are outstanding favourites to go through; they just need to admire this opponent. Know More News…
