Arsenal, Man City and Other Teams Learn Fate Following The Conclusion Of The Round-of-16 Champions League Draw.

The UEFA Champions League round of 16 draw has been completed in Nyon, Switzerland on Monday, as teams learn fate.

The round of 16 draw is featured England legend John Terry. The former Chelsea captain was introduced to the crowd at the UEFA event, as he ran through the procedures with UEFA's deputy general secretary Giorgio Marchetti. 

The Premier League only has two participants left in the competition (Arsenal and Manchester City) after Manchester United and Newcastle United both finished bottom of their respective groups.

Man City became only the second ever English side to complete a perfect UEFA Champions League group stage by winning all six of their matches this season.

Arsenal who reached the knock-out stage of the UCL for the first time in six years, will face Portuguese side FC Porto in the last-16 of the Champions League, while record winners Real Madrid have been drawn against RB Leipzig.

Reigning Champions League Man City, meanwhile, will play Copenhagen.

Napoli who finished second in the group stages behind Real Madrid, and now get the opportunity to play against another El Clasico giants Barcelona in the same season.

The Serie A champions will battle it out with five time winners Barca in what is billed as the Maradona Derby. The Catalans defeated Napoli in the 2019/20 Champions League round of 16 (1-1 away, 3-1 home), and also won the tknockout round play-offs of the 2021/22 Europa League.

Elsewhere, French side Paris Saint-Germain will play against Group D winners Real Sociedad after narrowly sealing qualification into the second round on the final day.

Last year’s losing finalists Inter Milan are up against the three-time finalists Atletico Madrid in what is expected to be another blockbuster clash.

The first and second legs of the round-of-16 will be played across two weeks each.

First legs: February 13/14 and February 20/21, 2024.

Second legs: March 5/6 and March 12/13, 2024.

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗚𝗨𝗘 ROUND-OF-16 𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗪 IN FULL:

🇵🇹 Porto 🆚 Arsenal 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

🇮🇹 Napoli 🆚 Barcelona 🇪🇸

🇫🇷 PSG 🆚 Real Sociedad 🇪🇸

🇮🇹 Inter 🆚 Atletico Madrid 🇪🇸

🇳🇱 PSV 🆚 Borussia Dortmund 🇩🇪

🇮🇹 Lazio 🆚 Bayern Munich 🇩🇪

🇩🇰 Copenhagen 🆚 Manchester City 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

🇩🇪 RB Leipzig 🆚 Real Madrid 🇪🇸

Quarter-final and semi-final draw: March 15, 2024

Quarter-finals: April 9/10 and 16/17, 2024

Semi-finals: April 30/May 1 and May 7/8, 2024

Final: June 1, 2024 at Wembley stadium, London.

NOTE:

This marks the final season of the traditional format before transitioning to a 36-team competition (up from 32 teams) with a revamped knockout bracket based primarily on final positions.

Group stage will be replaced by one big league table, which each team playing 10 games in the first phase (5 home, 5 away), that a 100 additional games from the previous 125 games to 225 games in total. The fixtures will be determined by seeding system based on historic performance.

The top eight sides in the league phase, will qualify automatically for the knock-out stage, while teams finishing in 9th to 24th place, will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their qualification to the last-16.

Then the knockout stages till the final remains unchanged.