by he Paris Saint Germain and Inter Milan are the rivals to avoid for the four Spanish survivorsBarça, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Real Sociedad, and the rest of the group winners in the draw for the round of 16 to be held this Monday at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon.
For theoretical potential, Luis Enrique Martínez’s team, with its entire constellation of figures led by Kylian Mbappé, and Inter, finalist last year, are the rivals to avoidalthough the Parisian team has not had a brilliant first stretch of the season and went through notable difficulties to finish second in its group and Real Sociedad demonstrated how to ‘tame’ the Milanese.
The four surviving Spanish teams -only Sevilla fell-, as well as The defending champions and great favorites, Manchester City, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, complete Cup 1 of the group winners.who, as is traditional, will have the advantage of playing the second leg in their field.
The members of cup 2, the second in the group, are, apart from PSG and Inter, Copenhagen, Lazio, RB Leipzig, Naples, Porto and PSV Eindhoven.
The Danish team is in principle everyone’s favorite. It returns to the second round for the third time in its history. The last time they reached this round was in the 2010/11 campaign, but lost to Chelsea..
In this campaign they have survived in a very complicated group, in which they were only surpassed in the table by Bayern Munich and preceded Galatasaray, against whom they earned a place in the last game (1-0) and Manchester United.
Eight years later, another of the favorites returns to the second round, PSV Eindhoven, one of Sevilla’s executioners. The Dutch team, champion of the highest continental competition in 1988 and outstanding leader of the Eredivisie, has shown itself to be competitive and wants to remove the thorn from when He conceded in his last appearance in this round in the penalty shootout against Atlético de Madrid.
Last season there were two clashes in the round of 16 that could be repeated this year., PSG-Bayern and Leipzig-Manchester City; Two years ago PSG and Real Madrid met; Three times ago the Lazio-Bayern and Barcelona-PSG crosses took place; and the Borussia Dortmund-PSG and Naples-Barcelona clashes have been four.
Teams that have been in the same group or from the same country cannot be paired.and the matches will be played on February 13/14/20/21 (first leg) and March 5/6/12/13 (second leg).
Possible rivals of the seeds:
Barça: PSG, Inter, Copenhagen, Lazio, RB Leipzig, Naples and PSV Eindhoven.
Bayern Munich: PSG, Inter, Lazio, Naples, Porto and PSV Eindhoven.
Arsenal: PSG, Inter, Copenhagen, Lazio, RB Leipzig, Naples and Porto.
Real Madrid: PSG, Inter, Copenhagen, Lazio, RB Leipzig, Porto and PSV Eindhoven.
Real Sociedad: PSG, Copenhagen, Lazio, RB Leipzig, Naples, Porto and PSV Eindhoven.
Atlético de Madrid: PSG, Inter, Copenhagen, RB Leipzig, Naples, Porto and PSV Eindhoven.
Borussia Dortmund: Inter, Copenhagen, Lazio, Naples, Porto and PSV Eindhoven.
Manchester City: PSG, Inter, Copenhagen, Lazio, Naples, Porto and PSV Eindhoven.
