The Champions League group stage is now all finished and the last 16 knockout draw is set to be released on Monday morning and teams like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Chelsea and Bayern Munich will be hoping for a solid schedule and things could get difficult with tough teams in the runner up positions with Manchester City, Arsenal and AC Milan.
The group stage was a hard fought battle for the 32 teams and it lasted from December to last week and the most competitive group ended up being Group F and Napoli ended up as the first team with 12 points not to advance to the next stage, with Dortmund and Arsenal advancing to the last 16 knockout round. The full draw will be set on Monday morning and play will start in February for the first legs of the knockout phase and both Chelsea and Manchester United come in with the chance of getting very tough draws and they ended up moving through in their group after winning it over Schalke by two points. Manchester United has had a tough go of it in the Premier League this year and they come into the Champions League draw after defeating Shakhtar Donetsk and that eliminated the club from Group A.
Manchester City has been hot as of late and they pulled off a big win against Bayern Munich to help them advance to the next stage and had they scored one more goal in their win they would have made it through as the winners of the group and now they have a tougher road through. The first legs for the last 16 teams on the draw will be in February for the first legs on the 18th and 19th as well as 25th and 26th, while the second legs will be in Match on the 11th and 12th as well as the 18th and 19th. The quarterfinals are in April followed by the semi finals in April and then the final will be on May 24 in 2014.
Arsenal finished their Champions League play with a loss against Napoli and they put them in the next round as the runners up in their group and that could lead to a difficult matchup in the knockout phase. The group of teams into the last 16 is tough with the defending champions in Bayern Munich as well as clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, as well as Premier League teams in Manchester City, the Gunners, Chelsea and Man U. Juventus was eliminated and the draw will be selected out of a hat with all the teams and Real Madrid looks like a favorite along with Bayern Munich and it comes after Cristiano Ronaldo had another amazing campaign, scoring nine goals in five games and the team scored a record tying number of goals in the group.
Arsenal is currently leading the Premier League despite losing over the weekend and they have been playing very well and scoring in bunches and that bodes well for them heading into the Last 16. The team has good matchups with clubs in the group winner positions and despite losing to Manchester City, Arsene Wenger said the club was confident heading into the knockouts. Bayern Munich eliminated Arsenal last season and they will be looking to make a finals run, while Barcelona is feeling great about having Lionel Messi back for the next round, as he is expected to be fully recovered by then.
Check here for the Champions League draw schedule and table.