Will probably be Real Madrid vs. Manchester City but once more within the Champions League — however by no means as early as this, and for the primary time with a Kylian Mbappé vs. Erling Haaland matchup.
Two heavyweights who struggled within the new eight-game league section had been the standout pairing Friday within the draw for the brand new knockout playoffs spherical. Metropolis needed to be drawn in opposition to Bayern Munich or defending champion Madrid.
Madrid and Metropolis met in three semifinals and one quarterfinal prior to now 9 years and every time the winner went on to raise the trophy.
This time it’s a two-leg playoff only for the best to enter the spherical of 16 as a result of every misplaced three of eight video games within the 36-team league and did not advance direct among the many prime eight positioned groups.
“The draw is the draw and we’ve to simply accept it,” stated Actual Madrid director Emilio Butragueno, who smiled and dismissed the concept the English champion is much less of a menace in what has been the hardest of coach Pep Guardiola’s 9 years in cost.
“We’ve got to assume they’re going to carry out on the very excessive degree in opposition to Actual Madrid,” the previous Spain scoring nice stated. “Little question.”
Metropolis, the 2023 champion in Haaland’s debut season, will host the primary leg in Manchester on Feb. 11 or 12 and the return recreation is on Feb. 18 or 19. Madrid received a record-extending fifteenth European title final season after which added Mbappé to an already stellar staff.
The winner will then face both Atlético Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen, the Nos. 5 and 6 groups within the 36-team standings that ended Wednesday. Different groups via to the spherical of 16 in March are Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Lille and Aston Villa.
Groups that completed from Nos. 9 to 24 within the standings dropped into the two-leg knockout playoffs.
Additionally Friday, it was Celtic vs. Bayern Munich, Brest vs. Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco vs. Benfica, Juventus vs. PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord vs. AC Milan, Club Brugge vs. Atalanta; and Sporting Lisbon vs. Borussia Dortmund.
Madrid positioned eleventh and Man City barely certified in twenty second, after rallying to beat Membership Brugge 3-1 in a must-win recreation.
By ending in twenty second Man Metropolis knew it must face No. 11 Madrid or No. 12 Bayern within the playoffs. Bayern was drawn as an alternative to face Twenty first-place Celtic.
“It is a loopy state of affairs,” stated Bayern sporting director Christophe Freund of getting 4 European champions with a mixed 23 titles — together with seven of the final 9 — in the identical part of the draw earlier than even the spherical of 16.
Bayern received its sixth European title in 2020, the pandemic shutdown season, when Madrid and Metropolis additionally met in February for a spherical of 16, first-leg recreation however the return was performed greater than 5 months later in August. Metropolis received each legs 2-1 then was eradicated by Lyon.
The tennis-style seedings and knockout bracket within the contemporary competitors format additionally now permits groups from the identical nation to face one another earlier than the quarterfinals. That was not doable for the previous 20 years when the spherical of 16 opened the knockout section.
That left PSG to be drawn Friday to face French rival Brest, which it additionally performs in a Ligue 1 recreation Saturday. That despatched Monaco — which may have confronted its French title rival PSG — to face Benfica.
Monaco chief govt Thiago Scuro, whose staff faces PSG within the league subsequent week, after a earlier league recreation in December and the French Tremendous Cup in January, urged one other native rivalry would have been “too many video games in opposition to the identical opponents.”
“For the followers it is extra fascinating the way in which the draw is (at this time),” Scuro stated, although Monaco already performed Benfica on Nov. 27, shedding 3-2 at residence.
Nationwide derby video games between Italian and Dutch sides had been averted as a result of AC Milan was paired with Feyenoord, earlier than Juventus was drawn to face PSV. Feyenoord will return to San Siro the place it received the 1970 European Cup remaining in opposition to Celtic.
The brand new format now permits groups to fulfill within the first knockout spherical after already dealing with one another within the opening stage. One other repeat recreation is Juventus-PSV, after the Italian aspect received 3-1 within the opening set of matches in September.
The Feb. 21 draw for the spherical of 16 will set the knockout bracket via to the Could 31 remaining at Bayern Munich’s stadium.
Reporting by The Related Press.
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