Liverpool have drawn holders Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League in a repeat of last season’s final. Fourteen-time winners Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1-0 in last year’s final in Paris thanks to Vinicius Junior’s 59th-minute goal. Premier League champions Manchester City take on Germany’s RB Leipzig, while Tottenham play Italian giants AC Milan. Chelsea also have a German opponent in Borussia Dortmund. Elsewhere, French champions Paris Saint-Germain drew with Bayern Munich. The first matches of the last 16 will take place on February 14-15 and 21-22, with the return matches on March 7-8 and 14-15. Full draw of 16: RB Leipzig – Manchester City Club Brugge – Benfica Liverpool – Real Madrid Milan at Tottenham Frankfurt – Napoli Borussia Dortmund at Chelsea Inter – Porto Paris Saint-Germain – Bayern Munich
A historic rivalry meets again
It is the fourth time in six seasons that six-time winners Liverpool have faced Real Madrid in the Champions League. Two of those occasions were in finals, with Real Madrid winning in both 2017-18 and 2021-22. The Spanish champions also eliminated Liverpool in the quarter-finals in the 2020-21 season. Jurgen Klopp’s side have appeared in three of the last five European finals, including last year’s final in Paris, and only AC Milan and Real Madrid have won the competition more times. The staging of the Reds’ final defeat in Paris was later described as “an abject failure” by European football’s UEFA, after looting and tear gas outside the Stade de France and kick-off being delayed 36 minutes. More than 480 testimonies from supporters and journalists at the final on May 28 were considered by an independent panel, which included Professor Phil Scraton, who previously led a report into the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster. In the 2018 final, Gareth Bale scored a stunning goal as Real Madrid won their third consecutive Champions League title with a 3-1 win over Liverpool.
Analysis
Former Liverpool midfielder Ray Houghton on BBC Radio 5 Live When you finish second in the group you leave yourself open to one of the big teams and Liverpool have certainly done that. There is no doubt that Real Madrid is their bogeyman. Looking at the two teams this season, Real Madrid are in better form. They are unbeaten in the league and qualified from the group stage quite comfortably. Hopefully Liverpool will be in a better position in February. They will have some of their injured players back and will be much better for the break coming up.
Manchester City are favorites to win their first European crown
Manchester City reached the semi-finals of the competition last season English champions City have yet to win the Champions League but are favorites to go all the way in this season’s competition. They reached the final in 2020-21 but lost 1-0 to Chelsea before being knocked out by Real Madrid in the semi-finals last year despite being two goals ahead on aggregate in the 90th minute. Last 16 opponents RB Leipzig failed to qualify from the group stages last season and currently sit sixth in the German Bundesliga table. Two-time champions Chelsea also lost to Real Madrid last season in the quarter-finals, while rivals Borussia Dortmund have not progressed beyond the last eight since reaching the 2012-13 final under former manager Klopp. England midfielder Jude Bellingham, who captained Borussia Dortmund in their group win over Sevilla, will face a number of international team-mates at Chelsea. Tottenham, who lost to Liverpool in the 2018-19 final in Madrid, will face seven-time European champions Milan for the first time in 11 years. It is a return to Italy for manager Antonio Conte, who managed rivals AC Milan between 2019 and 2021 before joining Spurs. Paris Saint-Germain have not lost a competitive game since March and are bidding for a first European crown with stars Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in the squad. Italian Serie A leaders Napoli face Frankfurt with their only defeat so far this season coming in their final group stage match against Liverpool. Portugal’s Benfica, who face Club Brugge, won the group after a sixth goal against Maccabi Haifa in injury time, drawing them level with Paris Saint-Germain in all scenarios and taking the top spot for most away goals in the group.
