Reigning champions Real Madrid will face 2023 winners Manchester City in the plum tie of the play-off round of this season’s Champions League, following Friday’s draw. It is the fourth year running in which the sides have been drawn against each other in a knockout tie, with Real emerging victorious in a penalty shoot-out in the quarter-finals last season. City, who scraped through after finishing 22nd in the league phase in this first season of the new format for Europe’s elite club competition, knew they faced a tough draw with Bayern Munich their other possible opponents.
Pep Guardiola’s team will be at home in the first leg before going to Spain for the return.
“It feels like a derby already,” Guardiola said at a press conference on Friday.
“Four years in a row facing Real Madrid. But Bayern or Madrid — both was really tough. Hopefully we can arrive in the first leg here, and then at Madrid, as best as possible.”
Real won a dramatic semi-final tie on the way to lifting the trophy in 2022, but City gained revenge at the same stage in 2023 as they went on to become champions.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side then came out on top last season, while Real won a semi-final tie between the sides in 2016 and City won in the last 16 in 2020.
“We know each other very well,” said Emilio Butragueno, Real’s director of institutional relations, to Spanish media.
“They are a really great team who have the experience and are used to these types of games, so they will be very difficult opponents.
“But this competition is very special for us and we will play the second leg at home, at the Bernabeu.”
Elsewhere, Celtic will face six-time European champions Bayern, after the Scottish champions reached the knockout stage for the first time in 12 years.
All-French tie
Paris Saint-Germain will play surprise package Brest in an all-French tie, while Juventus play PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord take on AC Milan in two ties between former winners of the competition.
Last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta, who finished one place outside the top eight which offered a direct path to the last 16, will face Club Brugge of Belgium.
Sporting of Portugal were drawn against last season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund, while Monaco will take on Benfica having lost at home to the Portuguese club in the league phase.
The play-off ties will take place next month, with the eight winners going through to the last 16 along with the eight highest-placed sides from the league phase.
Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa are the sides already through to the last 16.
Those teams finished in the top eight in the standings in the 36-team league phase — the first season of the new format for the competition saw all competing clubs placed together in one giant pool, each playing eight games against eight different opponents.
The draw for the remainder of the competition is partly pre-determined, meaning that whoever emerges triumphant in the tie between City and Real knows they will play either Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16.
The draw for the last 16 onwards will take place on February 21, and it remains to be seen if Liverpool derive any advantage from having come first in the league phase.
Arne Slot’s team will play either PSG or Brest, or Monaco or Benfica, in the last 16 in March.
This season’s Champions League final will be played at the Allianz Arena in Munich on Saturday, May 31.
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